
Class ~V A 14 2. 

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Book 



Copyright N°. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE MAKING OF AN ORATION 



The 

Making of an Oration 

BY 

CLARK MILLS BRINK 

Professor of English Literature in the 
Kansas State Agricultural College 




CHICAGO 

C. McCLURG & CO, 

1913 






W 



Br 



Copyright 

A. C. McCLURG & CO 

1913 

Published October, 191 3 



ffl. 3F. fall Printing (fin. 

<£tjirayo 



*- 



1/ 

©CI.A357097 






TO MY WIFE 

and to the hundreds of 

STUDENTS 

whom it has been my privilege to teach in 

years gone by, and those whom I 

hope to teach in years to come 






FOREWORD 



THIS manual is the outgrowth of nearly twenty years' 
experience in teaching rhetoric, in its various forms 
and applications, to successive classes of college students. 
Much of it was given originally as informal and un- 
written lectures to classes in oratorical composition. 
Later these lectures were committed to writing for the 
purpose of making them more useful to my pupils. It 
is hoped that the informal style and methods of the 
classroom will not detract from the usefulness of the 
book. 

The aim of the following pages is preeminently prac- 
tical. Their purpose is to present as clearly and definitely 
as may be the distinctions between the oration and other 
forms of discourse, and to set forth concretely and 
specifically the fundamental methods that must be pur- 
sued by him who would attain success in oratorical com- 
position. 

No attempt is made to teach the higher and finer 
forms of oratorical style. What is the use of trying 
to teach in a book what can not be taught or learned, 
in any large and satisfying measure, in the classroom 
or from a book? These higher and finer qualities de- 



Foreword 

pend upon inborn gifts, a cultivated taste, wide reading, 
and experience. Webster was right when he said that 
eloquence " must exist in the man, in the subject, and 
in the occasion." These are things that can not be taught 
or learned off-hand. They may come, if the man have 
right powers of body, mind, and spirit, which have been 
so cultivated that, when the subject and the occasion 
conjoin, he may meet them with success; but the most 
that a textbook can do in preparing him for that occa- 
sion is to point out the road he must travel and the 
methods he must pursue, and to guide him in studying 
great speeches of others and in the practice of making 
speeches of his own. 

Since the aim of this book is practical, — that is, since 
its purpose is to help those who study it how to proceed 
in order to prepare a speech in persuasion, it is of neces- 
sity largely, indeed mainly, concerned with the mechanism 
of oratory. It is a discussion of the art of oratory, except 
that it does not consider the elocution of that art ; it is 
the rhetoric of persuasive public speech. 

The principles of this art are not, of course, the inven- 
tion of the teacher. Oratory existed before books were 
thought of. There is no better way, then, of testing the 
truth and practicalness of the principles presented in the 
book, than to study those principles as exemplified in 
actual speeches of the great orators. For this reason, 
many of the principles set forth in this book are 
illustrated by examples drawn from some of the great 
speeches of the world, and also as many complete 



Foreword 

speeches are added as space will permit. This collection 
is supplemented by a list of some of the world's other 
masterpieces of eloquence, which the student will find 
it profitable to study. 

In their early experience students often find difficulty 
in choosing subjects for oratorical treatment. In the 
hope of helping them to solve this difficulty, lists of 
topics are added that are appropriate for such exercises. 
This list might be indefinitely extended; questions of 
current interest will present themselves every day, giving 
to the alert student abundant matter for practice in per- 
suasive discourse. 

It has been thought well not to introduce many notes 
on the speeches included, but to leave the student free 
to study out for himself the meaning of any expressions 
that are not perfectly clear at the first reading. The 
wide-awake teacher and the interested student will need 
little help of this kind. One great objection to many 
editions of masterpieces published for school use is 
found in the fact that they are so overloaded with notes 
as to make the mastery of the notes seem more impor- 
tant than the mastery of the literature itself. If the 
student is led to make his own notes, he will gain the 
necessary information, and, what is far better, he will 
get something of the inspiration coming from the study 
of real literature. The oration, then, becomes vital to 
him, and quickens his own powers to similar creative 
effort. 

I wish to express my appreciation of the courtesy of 



Foreword 

the Honorable William Jennings Bryan, for permission 
to use any of his speeches, to Harper & Brothers, for 
their approval of my use of the address of George William 
Curtis as printed in their edition of Mr. Curtis's orations 
and addresses edited by Professor Norton, and for a 
similar favor granted by Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Com- 
pany, to use their copy of the oration quoted from 
Wendell Phillips. 

There are many evidences of a marked revival of 
interest in the study and practice of oratory in the 
schools and colleges of our country — especially west 
of the Alleghanies. It is with the hope of contributing 
something to this widening interest, and of helping in 
some measure the ambitious student of this noble art on 
his way to success, that this little book has been written 
and is now published. 

C. M. B. 
Manhattan, Kansas, 1913. 



CONTENTS 

PART I 

THE NATURE AND ELEMENTS OF ORATORY 
CHAPTER PAGE 

I. A Working Definition 3 

II. Types of Oratory 11 

III. The Parts of an Oration 14 

PART II 

THE PLAN OF AN ORATION 

IV. Necessity of a Plan 33 

V. The Choice of a Theme 40 

VI. The Object 48 

VII. How to Gather Material 53 

VIII. The Ordering of Material 58 

PART III 

THE COMPOSITION OF AN ORATION 

IX. The Composition of an Oration 73 

X. Qualities of the Introduction 78 

XI. Thought and Style of the Conclusion. . 86 

XII. General Qualities of Oratorical Style. 95 

XIII. Essential Qualities of Oratorical Style. 163 



Contents 

PART IV 

GIFTS AND HABITS OF THE ORATOR 

PAGE 

XIV. Inborn Gifts 169 

XV. Reading for the Orator 172 

XVI. Two Lines of Preparation 186 

XVII. The Delivery of the Oration 196 

PART V 

Speeches for Careful Study 209 

A List of Speeches for Further Study 404 

A List of Subjects Suitable for Oratorical 

Treatment 407 

Index 423 



LIST OF ORATIONS 

PAGE 

Affairs in Cuba John M. Thurston 324 

Ahab and Micaiah Alexander Maclaren 388 

" Cross of Gold," The William J. Bryan 314 

First Inaugural Address. .Abraham Lincoln 214 

Gettysburg Address Abraham Lincoln 226 

Inaugural Address Woodrow Wilson 398 

Liberty or Death Patrick Henry ... 209 

Liverpool Speech Henry Ward Beecher. . . .250 

New South, The Henry W. Grady 301 

Paul to the Athenians. . . .St. Paul 386 

Paul to the Jews St. Paul 381 

Paul's Speech to Agrippa . . St. Paul 383 

Philippine Question, The . . George F. Hoar 339 

Public Duty of Educated 
Men, The George William Curtis. . .281 

Second Inaugural Address. A braham Lincoln 227 

Under the Flag Wendell Phillips 230 



PART I 

The Nature and Elements of Oratory 



The Making of an Oration 



CHAPTER I 
A WORKING DEFINITION 

IN ORDER to attain success in any art, it is necessary 
to have a clear conception of what that art is. This 
principle applies no less truly to the art of oratory than 
it does to the art of painting. 

Oratory may be treated either as an art or as a science. 
A science has been well defined as classified knowledge. 
From this point of view a discussion of oratory would 
have as its aim the presentation of the principles of 
oratory in a systematic order, without special reference 
to the practical application of those principles in actual 
public speech. One may know oratory as a science and be 
wholly unskilled as an orator; just as one may be a 
critic of painting without being a painter. He may be 
able to point out with profound insight, keen perception 
of truth, and exact knowledge, the artistic qualities of 
Rosa Bonheur's great painting, " The Horse Fair," and 
not possess enough skill on his own part to draw a saw- 
horse. In other words, one may be familiar with a 

3 



4 The Making of an Oration 

science and not be master of the corresponding art. 
Whether the reverse of this law is true may well be 
questioned; whether one can be a skilled artist without 
knowing the laws of that art is more than doubtful. It 
may be granted that, through native gifts and constant 
practice, one may attain some measure of success in a 
given art; but it is only the genius that can reach the 
highest success without knowing the science on which 
the art is based, and we have little if any conclusive 
evidence that even genius has ever attained supreme 
success in any art without familiarity with the funda- 
mental laws or science of that art. Demosthenes and 
Cicero are the leading names in the history of oratory; 
both of them studied for years in order to perfect them- 
selves in this art of all the arts. They studied the science 
in order to perfect themselves in the art. 

Oratory will here be considered primarily as an art. 
The aim of this manual is preeminently practical. But 
in order to make it practical, some attention will need 
to be given to the science on which it is founded and of 
which it is the outgrowth. Such attention, however, 
will be incidental. So far as we shall study the science 
of this type of discourse, we shall study it for the 
sole purpose of developing skill in the art of preparing 
orations. 

The relation of oratory to rhetoric in general is not 
difficult to understand. Indeed, oratory is rhetoric 
turned in a specific direction and applied in a particular 
way. It is the species of which rhetoric is the genus; 



A Working Definition 5 

or more precisely, rhetoric is the family, while per- 
suasive discourse is the genus, and oratory the species. 
Therefore all the laws of rhetoric must find exemplifi- 
cation in oratory, and in addition there is something 
added that differentiates this type of discourse from all 
other forms. 

What, then, is an oration ? Its general nature may be 
developed by combining the following characteristics: 

I. An oration is an oral address. It is not a short 
story; it is not an expository address; it is not exclu- 
sively an argument. It may combine the characteristics 
of any or all these, but these are not what give it its 
distinctive character. It is an oration partly because it 
is designed for presentation in a face-to-face and an 
eye-to-eye contact with an audience. This fact gives it 
peculiarities of structure and peculiarities of style that 
adapt it to effective vocal delivery, but that would not 
always be desirable or even allowable in other forms of 
discourse. 

It is said that Edmund Burke held the theory that 
oratory, so far as its style is concerned, should differ in 
no respect from discourse written for leisurely reading. 
But Burke himself, although professedly exemplifying 
his theory, actually proved the rule to the contrary; for, 
while he adorned his speeches with all the fullness of 
thought and richness of imagery appropriate to written 
discourse, he not infrequently emptied the House of 
Commons. The speeches that are read with delight 
were often heard with indifference. 



6 The Making of an Oration 

Because it is oral discourse the oration has both advan- 
tages and disadvantages that do not pertain to that 
which is written for the reader. It has the advantages 
of the magnetic presence, the kindling eye, the thrilling 
voice, the suggestive gesture. On the other hand, the 
orator labors under the disadvantage incident to the 
necessity of delivering his soul in a single utterance, with 
no opportunity to elaborate his thought or to give to its 
expression those graces of style that the essayist or the 
novelist has, who writes at leisure for the instruction 
or amusement of those who read at leisure. Because it 
is an oral address, therefore, the oration must possess 
all the ease, flexibility, rhythm, simplicity, directness, and 
intensity of earnest extemporaneous speech, and at the 
same time it must proceed on those broad and general 
lines of thought adapted to arouse the interest of the 
hearers, fit their understanding, and especially direct 
their purposes. 

2. In the second place, an oration is an oral discourse 
on a worthy and dignified theme. Not all subjects are 
suitable for oratorical treatment. They lack dignity, or 
they lack seriousness, or they lack that elevation of 
thought essential to genuine eloquence. They may be 
too literary in substance, — appropriate to the essay or 
book, but requiring too elaborate treatment for the plat- 
form. They may be too philosophical, or too abstract, 
or too technical, and thus be incapable of impressing the 
popular mind, of arousing the popular feeling, or of 
moving the popular will. 



A Working Definition 7 

To admit of oratorical treatment a subject must be 
worthy of noble thought. No trivial topic will answer. 
A student once offered the plan of an oration on the 
subject, " The Dog as Man's Best Friend," stating that 
his purpose was to induce his hearers to buy a dog. It 
is needless to say that the discussion of such a theme is 
not oratory. That student might have been a " howling 
success " as the doorkeeper of a menagerie, but he would 
hardly be likely to develop into a Demosthenes. The 
harangue of an auctioneer or a street peddler is never 
synonymous with eloquence. If the theme is ignoble, 
no art can make the discourse noble. At the best the 
result will be either bombast or burlesque. The speech 
must be on a theme suited by its very nature to quicken 
the mind, to lift the imagination, to stir the feelings, 
to strengthen the convictions, to arouse all that is highest 
in the speaker and prepare him to exercise his best 
powers with such vigor and effectiveness that his hearers 
will not only be led to accept his opinions, but be 
strengthened in the determination to act accordingly. 

The intimate relation between the theme and its treat- 
ment cannot be too strongly emphasized. A theme may, 
in itself, be a good theme, yet not a theme suitable for 
oratory, properly so called. Nor does the fact that it is 
orally delivered necessarily classify the discourse as an 
oration. Because all orations are oral addresses, it by 
no means follows that all oral addresses are orations. 
Such addresses may be, and often are, simply expositions 
of some truth, or some idea, or some fact. They may be 



8 The Making of an Oration 

merely essays in criticism or in history orally presented. 
The method of presentation does not in itself classify 
them as orations. A subject to be suitable for oratorical 
treatment must, as already suggested, be susceptible of 
such development as shall appeal to the whole spiritual 
nature of the hearer — to his intellect, his sensibilities, 
and his will. Then and only then is it " a worthy and 
dignified theme.'* 

3. In the third place, an oration is an oral discourse 
on a worthy and dignified theme adapted to the average 
hearer. The speech, in both theme and treatment, should 
be of such a nature as to appeal to the every-day mind. 
It is not, exclusively, for any " aristocracy of intellect " ; 
nor, on the other hand, is it primarily for the dullard. 
It is, at once, for all grades of ability and training, such 
as are to be found in any popular audience. It is this 
element that lies at the basis of any rational discussion 
of oratory as an art. For, since the art does not find 
its end in itself but is practiced with a view to its desired 
effect upon the hearer, any treatment of the subject 
must be mainly occupied with a consideration of how 
best to accomplish this purpose. How shall I gain the 
respect and confidence of my hearers? How shall I 
remove their indifference or, it may be, their prejudice 
toward my subject? How shall I excite their interest 
and convince their reason ? How shall I arouse, control, 
and direct their passions? How shall I do all these 
things so as to lead them, ultimately, to the desired 
decision of will? These are questions that the orator 



A Working Definition 9 

must, consciously or unconsciously, ask himself in pre- 
paring and pronouncing every speech. And the answer 
to these questions involves all the considerations that 
have to do with the discovery, selection, and arrange- 
ment of material, with the choice of words, the con- 
struction of sentences, the use of figures, the employment 
of illustrations, the final delivery — in a word with all 
the considerations that involve questions of invention, 
of style, and of utterance. 

4. In the fourth place, an oration is an oral discourse 
on a worthy and dignified theme, adapted to the average 
hearer, and whose aim is to influence the will of that 
hearer. It is a speech pronounced in order to persuade. 
As such it belongs to the highest type of prose discourse. 
It may, and not improbably will, contain exposition and 
argument, but it does not find its end in these forms of 
discourse. They are satisfied when they have enlightened 
the understanding or convinced the reason. Oratory 
may subserve both these purposes, and may likewise 
kindle the imagination and arouse the emotions, but it 
does not stop there. It not only appeals to the intellect 
and stirs the sensibilities, but most of all, it lays hold 
of the will. 

It is this feature more than any other that differentiates 
oratory from all other types of discourse. One may 
pronounce an oral discourse on a worthy theme, but 
unless his speech is designed and adapted to move the 
will it cannot properly be classed as oratory. Webster 
truly describes eloquence, which is the soul of orator}', 



10 The Making of an Oration 

as " urging the whole man onward, right onward to his 
object/' He who fails to attain that "object," fails in 
his ultimate purpose as an orator. Whatever other excel- 
lences his production may possess of learning, of noble 
thought, of beautiful language, lacking the element of 
persuasion, it is not oratory. The crown of eloquence 
encircles the brow, not of him that " draws a bow at a 
venture," but of him that consciously and successfully 
aims to bring down the game. The true orator, as the 
late President E. G. Robinson, himself no mean orator, 
was wont to say, " puts a hook in the nose of his audi- 
ence and leads it " ; or, to use the expressive phrase of 
President Martin B. Anderson, the orator by the power 
of speech " brings things to pass." Thus it was the 
highest praise of eloquence when, after listening to a 
fiery philippic of Demosthenes, the Athenians raised the 
cry : " Up, let us march against Philip ! " 



CHAPTER II 

TYPES OF ORATORY 

THE fourth characteristic of an oration, as above de- 
fined, gives rise to the inquiry whether we do not too 
much limit the province of oratory by describing it as 
invariably an appeal to the will. How, then, shall we 
class those addresses that do not aim at definite action? 
Dr. Nott's great address on " The Death of Hamilton," 
Webster's speech on " The First Settlement of New 
England" — were not these orations? 

This inquiry suggests a distinction, which needs to be 
recognized, between the different types of oratory — a 
distinction based on the recognized difference between 
speeches calling for immediate and definite decision and 
action and those not so calling. This distinction gives 
rise to a twofold division, to which have been given the 
names : Determinate Oratory and Demonstrative Oratory. 

i. Determinate Oratory. — Under this name may be 
included all those examples of persuasive speech that 
anticipate direct and specific action on the part of those 
addressed. 

The action contemplated in this class of discourse may 
culminate in a vote, a resolution, a verdict, or in a silent 
yet real resolution to pursue a certain course. But it is 
definite and the operation of the will is positive and 

11 



12 The Making of an Oration 

immediate. Such is the oratory of deliberative assem- 
blies, or legislative bodies, where the action under dis- 
cussion has to do with public policy; the oratory of the 
platform, whose end is to gain votes in an approaching 
election, or to secure cooperation in some proposed under- 
taking; the oratory of the bar, whose end is to secure 
a verdict of a jury or a favorable decision from a court; 
much of the oratory of the pulpit, whose conscious pur- 
pose is to win those who are not Christians to a definite 
and willing acceptance of the Christian faith and those 
who are Christians to resolve upon a life of closer 
obedience and service. Thus, wherever and however 
displayed, determinate oratory includes all those speeches 
that seek for a specific decision of the will, attended or 
followed by some act or course of action. 

2. The other great type of oratorical discourse has been 
called Demonstrative Oratory. Under this name we may 
include all those speeches that do not call for a specific 
action at a definite time on the part of the hearer, but 
that nevertheless demand a genuine decision of the will 
on his part. Such speeches aim to bring about in each 
hearer's mind an unexpressed and perhaps even unformu- 
lated resolution to live differently, to cherish certain senti- 
ments, to hold a certain attitude, to cultivate certain 
habits, to follow a certain course, or to be a certain kind 
of man. Although no particular action is aimed at, this 
type of oratory is none the less an appeal to the will; 
the chief difference between this and determinate oratory 
is that this seeks for a decision that shall manifest itself 






Types of Oratory 13 

not in a single immediate action so much as in, perhaps, 
a course of life, in an attitude. The decision of the will, 
as already suggested, may not be expressed in language, 
and the hearer may not be conscious that he has formed 
a decision. It is manifest, rather, in a general bracing 
of the will in regard to the question at issue. Like a 
rivulet flowing into a river, the speech contributes a real, 
even if an imperceptible, accretion to the stream of the 
hearer's determination. 

Not a little preaching and much platform speaking m&£ 
be classed as demonstrative oratory. Here is where Dr. 
Nott's "Death of Hamilton " and Webster's " First 
Settlement of New England " belong. A speech on such 
a theme as " The Character of Lincoln," if it presented 
that character in such a manner as to lead the hearers 
to resolve to cultivate Lincoln's virtues; an address on 
" The Oratory of Wendell Phillips," if it portrayed that 
oratory with such attractiveness as to induce the hearers 
to emulate, so far as their gifts and opportunities would 
permit, the qualities of that oratory; an eloquent dis- 
cussion of " True Patriotism," if it so exalted such 
patriotism as to persuade the hearers to exemplify it in 
their own lives, would be true oratory, because it would 
lay hold on the will. Such addresses belong to demon- 
strative oratory. Indeed, most speeches that serve to 
arouse public sentiment, to quicken patriotism, to awaken 
admiration for exalted character or high achievement, to 
stir and stimulate a purpose for right living and noble 
endeavor, are of this type. 



CHAPTER III 

THE PARTS OF AN ORATION 

AN ORATION, like any other well constructed dis- 
course, is made up of a variety of parts. The 
number of parts that should be recognized will vary 
according to circumstances, to the kind of oratory, to 
the minuteness of analysis desired, and to other factors 
that need not now be enumerated. For example, a ser- 
mon has an element not found in other forms of public 
speech in the text that is commonly used in this type of 
discourse. The text may well be regarded as a part 
of the sermon, and not rarely it is the best part. 

Still further the analysis will depend upon the use of 
terms. No two writers precisely agree in their nomen- 
clature. They use words in different senses and give 
different names to the same idea. Aristotle, for example, 
recognized as parts of an oration the introduction, the 
proposition, the proof, and the conclusion, but he claimed 
that neither the introduction nor the conclusion was 
essential. Quintilian, the great Latin rhetorician, on the 
other hand, enumerated five parts, which he named the 
introduction, the narration, the proof, the refutation, and 
the conclusion. What he called the narration belonged 
especially to the oratory of the bar; it was what in 

14 



The Parts of an Oration 15 

modern times is termed the lawyer's statement of his 
case, and included substantially the ground covered by 
Aristotle's " Proposition." So, likewise, the " Proof " 
and the " Refutation " in Quintilian's analysis are simply 
the positive and the negative sides of one process. 

In the present discussion it is desired to avoid extended 
and minute analysis, and to proceed as much as may 
be on broad and general lines. For the sake of simplicity, 
therefore, we need to recognize only four main divisions 
of a completed oration: (i) the introduction; (2) the 
proposition or object; (3) the discussion; (4) the con- 
clusion. 

We say the " completed " oration reveals these parts, 
because we wish to distinguish between the finished 
product and the skeleton on which that product is built. 
The skeleton, or plan, includes and sharply defines all the 
details and particulars; it states the title, theme, object, 
introduction, discussion with its various partitions and 
subdivisions, and the nature of the conclusion ; but in the 
speech, as pronounced, some of these details are buried. 
They are present, giving unity, coherence, order, propor- 
tion, progress, strength, and climax to the discourse, but 
they do not usually appear to the hearer — at least not 
so prominently as to obtrude themselves upon his atten- 
tion. What he realizes, so far as the topic now under 
discussion is concerned, is that the discourse has a begin- 
ning, a pervading general thought, the development of 
that thought, and an appropriate ending, and that these 
different parts, while vitally connected, are, nevertheless, 



16 The Making of an Oration 

distinct one from another. If he be an intelligent and 
attentive listener, he knows where one ends and another 
begins. For purposes of convenience, therefore, the four 
parts above named may be considered as constituting 
the groundwork of a typical oration. It is the present 
purpose to discuss simply the nature, functions, and in a 
limited measure the form of these parts, leaving such 
matters as the method of development and details of 
style for later consideration. 

i. The Introduction. — As its name implies, the intro- 
duction is that part at the beginning of an oration which 
" leads into " the discourse and prepares the way for the 
presentation and proposed discussion of the main topic. 
Its aim is simply, naturally, briefly, and effectively to 
interest the audience in the theme and prepare it for 
listening fairly and, if it may be, sympathetically to the 
development of that theme. It is the nexus between the 
theme and the hearers. The speaker has these factors 
before him — his theme and his audience. How shall he 
bring these two factors together? This is the problem 
that is set for him. The process of solving this problem 
is revealed in the introduction. That it be solved is of 
supreme importance. 

The introduction has for one of its functions to lead 
the audience into the subject without shock. " Mental 
processes, to be agreeable, must be gradual." For an 
orator to plunge without preface of some sort into the 
heat of a discussion would be as contrary to the law of 
mind as for the sun to burst from midnight darkness to 



The Parts of an Oration 17 

noonday splendor without the gradations of the dawn 
would be contrary to the law of the physical universe. 
The introduction performs the office of a herald, grace- 
fully to announce and impressively to marshal in the full 
procession of the thought. 

But the introduction does more than this. It serves 
to arouse sympathy on the part of the audience with the 
speaker's own feelings toward his subject. He, pre- 
sumably, is not only interested in the question in hand, 
but excited over it. His hearers, on the contrary, are 
relatively indifferent if not positively hostile in their 
attitude toward that question. It will never do to plunge 
without prelude into the full blaze of the discussion. 
The heat would be too great; instead of warming the 
sympathies of the hearers it would rather scorch and 
wither them. " Behold how great a conflagration a little 
fire kindleth ! " The orator must begin not with the 
blasting conflagration but with the little fire. He may be, 
himself, profoundly stirred; indeed he must be if he 
would achieve the highest oratorical success; but to 
arouse his hearers to a similar frame of mind is a gradual 
process. He must first overcome their intellectual and 
emotional inertia. The engineer that pulls the throttle 
of the locomotive wide open at the first touch invites 
disaster. He does not move the train, he breaks the 
coupling, and if the machine does not jump the track 
it goes tearing along the course alone. The introduction 
to a speech is the gradual opening of the valve, by which 
the wise orator puts his audience in motion, so to speak, 



18 The Making of an Oration 

with himself, and prepares them to move without jar 
in full harmony with his own thought and feeling to the 
chosen destination. 

Once more, the introduction affords the speaker an 
opportunity of putting not only his theme but himself 
on good terms with his audience. If his hearers are 
indifferent or hostile to him, or if they are distrustful 
of him, he can do nothing with them. They do not 
separate, in their thoughts, the speech from the speaker. 
He must remove their prejudices before he can move 
them. The introduction affords him an opportunity of 
doing this. It gives him a chance to convince them of 
his frankness and sincerity, of his honesty of purpose 
and method, of his profound conviction of the truth and 
importance of the position he holds, of the uprightness 
of his character, of his mastery of the subject in hand, 
so that they may hear him as one that speaks with 
authority. Such, then, is the threefold function of the 
introduction : it prepares the audience for the intellectual 
apprehension of and interest in the subject; it enables 
the speaker to place himself on good terms with his 
hearers ; it helps him bring them into sympathy of feeling 
with himself toward the subject. All this is what Cicero 
meant by his famous assertion that the purpose of the 
exordium is " reddere auditores benevolos, attentos, doci- 
les " — that is, to render the hearers " well disposed " 
toward the speaker, " attentive " to what he may have to 
say, and " teachable " or open-minded in regard to the 
sentiments he may have to express. At least one and 



The Parts of an Oration 19 

perhaps all these purposes will be exemplified and sub- 
served in every effective introduction. This principle will 
explain why so many speeches and lectures begin with a 
more or less amusing story or joke. It is an attempt, on 
the part of the speaker, to put himself at the outset on 
good terms with his hearers. Some speakers manifest 
great tact and adroitness in taking advantage of unfore- 
seen circumstances to secure the goodwill of their audi- 
ences. Several years ago, at a large religious convention 
in Washington, a great audience had gathered to listen 
to a distinguished speaker. When the speaker was intro- 
duced, there was the usual courteous applause. In the 
midst of the applause a pane of glass fell from one of the 
windows to the floor. There was an instant's hush at 
the unexpected interruption. " There," exclaimed the 
speaker, before the sound of the breaking glass was 
fairly ended, " I 'm bringing down the house already," 
and this time the applause was genuine. By such a ready 
wit he had placed himself on terms of good-fellowship 
with his audience and they were prepared to listen in a 
friendly attitude to all that he had to say. His intro- 
duction was made for him by circumstances. 

Some modern illustrations of introductions that fulfill 
the purposes above enumerated are to be found in the 
speeches delivered in Great Britain during the Civil 
War by Henry Ward Beecher. One of these speeches 
was made at Liverpool. There were many sympathizers 
with secession in England, and they were determined that 
Mr. Beecher should not speak. The hall where the 



20 The Making of an Oration 

address was to be given was packed with a turbulent mob, 
hostile to the cause of the North, sympathizers with the 
secessionists, and they had come prepared to break up 
the meeting. When the speaker appeared he was greeted 
with jeers, catcalls, yells, hisses, insults, dead cats, over- 
ripe eggs, and decayed vegetables. Whenever there was 
a lull in the uproar, he would manage, with great good 
nature, supreme tact, and indomitable courage, to make 
himself heard for a sentence or two, in which he would 
appeal to the traditional British sentiment of fair play. 
The following passage will reveal something of the for- 
midable task that confronted him and the marvelous skill 
with which he performed that task: 

Personally, it is a matter of very little consequence to me 
whether I speak here tonight or not. [Laughter and 
cheers.] But one thing is very certain, if you do permit me 
to speak here tonight, you will hear very plain talking. 
[Applause and hisses.] You will not find a man [interrup- 
tion] you will not find me a man that dared to speak about 
Great Britain three thousand miles off, and then is afraid to 
speak to Great Britain when he stands on her shores. [Im- 
mense applause and hisses.] And if I do not mistake the 
tone and temper of Englishmen, they had rather have a man 
who opposes them in a manly way — [applause from all parts 
of the hall] — than a sneak that agrees with them in an un- 
manly way. [Applause and " Bravo." ] Now, if I can carry 
you with me by sound convictions, I shall be immensely glad 
— [applause] ; but if I cannot carry you with me by facts and 
sound arguments, I do not wish you to go with me at all ; all 
that I ask is simply Fair Play. [Applause, and a voice : 
" You shall have it, too ! " ] 



The Parts of an Oration 21 

Thus the great and eloquent man gained a hearing, 
rendered most of his audience " well disposed, attentive, 
teachable," and transposed a howling, jeering, turbulent 
mob, determined to break him down in his effort to speak, 
into an enthusiastic, cheering company of listeners, 
clambering wildly over the seats to shake the orator by 
the hand. That series of five addresses so turned the 
tide of sentiment in England that thenceforth it was im- 
possible for the English Government to recognize the 
independence of the Confederacy. It will well repay 
any student of oratory to study those addresses as among 
the very greatest triumphs in the history of eloquence. 

2. The Proposition or Object. — The proposition or 
object may be explained as that part of a speech in which 
the subject is narrowed and defined for discussion. It 
is the expression in language of the fact, thought, truth, 
principle, or duty that is laid down for treatment in the 
discourse as a whole. It is the central idea of the speech 
on which everything turns. It is the theme stated in a 
definite form appropriate to a specific type of discourse. 
That form is not restricted to a declarative sentence, but 
may be an interrogative, and for the speaker's own use 
an imperative. Indeed, since oratory is preeminently an 
appeal to the will, an imperative sentence is the best form 
for the statement of this element. That is why the term 
" Object " is employed. It is the definition in the speech 
itself of precisely that phase of the general subject which 
the speaker intends to talk about and develop in the dis- 
cussion in such a way as to appeal to the hearers' will. 



22 The Making of an Oration 

As stated to his hearers, it may or it may not reveal the 
attitude that he purposes to hold with reference to the 
topic in hand, but it does hold him, and so his hearers, to 
the consideration of that topic and of that alone. 

Although the proposition may be expressed in a single 
brief sentence or even a phrase of two or three words, 
its importance, indeed its necessity, to successful oratory, 
cannot be overestimated. And this, because it is the heart 
of the speech. The connection is a vital one. Without 
it the discourse will be as powerless as would be a body 
without a heart beating to send the red blood to every 
part of the organism. Without this feature the address 
may have, indeed, a reasonably correct outward form; 
but it needs the proposition to breathe into that form the 
breath of life so that it becomes a living soul. 

For one thing, this element serves to steady and give 
direction to the thought, and thus secure the great ele- 
ment of rhetorical unity. Lacking this factor the dis- 
course is chaos, " without form, and void." The prop- 
osition broods over the speech and out of the chaos 
brings order and light. On his own account the speaker 
needs this concentrated and definite statement of his 
central topic. Mere fluency of speech, if he have it, is 
not sufficient. How, without a properly formulated 
proposition, shall he secure the solidity, depth, harmony, 
concreteness, and progression essential for strong think- 
ing ? He may have " thoughts that wander through 
eternity "; but there is just the danger ; they may wander 
through eternity and for eternity; but to be of value to 



The Parts of an Oration 23 

anyone they must stop their wandering and get their feet 
upon the solid earth. It is the function of the proposition 
to gather in the speaker's wandering thoughts that would 
otherwise befog his mind, and marshal them, as it were, 
upon the ground among real men. 

The correct statement of his proposition is also of 
great value to the speaker in the work of invention. The 
young and inexperienced speech maker is often led to the 
choice of broad and general themes, on the supposition 
that vastness of subject will insure richness of material. 
Just the reverse is true. He who has thus deceived him- 
self will soon find his inventive powers floundering in 
the slough of intellectual barrenness. It is better to culti- 
vate well a small field than to scratch the surface of a 
large field. Right here is where the young preacher, for 
example, often makes a mistake. Feeling upon him the 
burden of making two sermons every week, he may 
imagine that if he chooses a very broad theme he will 
more easily find enough to say to keep things going for 
the conventional thirty minutes. So he is tempted to 
cover the entire territory in every discourse, from the 
" In the beginning " of Genesis to the benediction of 
Revelation. The result invariably is that instead of 
adding to the fertility and productiveness of his mind, 
he is reducing it to a condition of intellectual barrenness. 
The mind works best intensively rather than extensively ; 
therefore a restricted theme is suggestive. The speaker 
has a certain amount of intellectual force to expend upon 
a subject; in proportion as his subject is enlarged, there- 



24 „ The Making of an Oration 

fore, will the intensity of his thinking be restricted. On 
the other hand, as he calls in his mind from the oceanic 
wastes of an extensive subject and directs it to the con- 
templation of a particular theme, he will find many- 
materials in view that previously escaped his vision, and 
his use of these materials will be more effective than 
would be possible were his attention dissipated over a 
wide area. Chain lightning is always more effective than 
sheet lightning. 

But if the proposition is requisite to the definiteness, 
unity, and inventive power of the orator's own thinking, 
no less essential is it for the guidance of the audience. 
Hearers do not want to be trifled with or babied. They 
instinctively demand early in the speech a definite knowl- 
edge of the particular question, to a discussion of which 
they are expected to listen. They begin to consider and 
perhaps to inquire : " What is the speaker driving at ? 
What particular phase of the general subject does he 
purpose to discuss ? " They demand that he shall " drive 
at " something and that he shall make known to them 
precisely what that something is. Suppose, for illustra- 
tion, that the subject is " The College Settlement." Will 
he discuss the whole subject? That is obviously too ex- 
tensive for a brief speech. What then ? Its origin ? Its 
history? Its fundamental purpose? The nature of its 
work? Its achievements? Its prospects? Its opportu- 
nities ? A score of themes may thus be deduced from any 
subject that is worthy of consideration at all. Suppose 
the last theme suggested is near the speaker's thought, 



The Parts of an Oration 25 

and finally the idea is formulated as " The College Set- 
tlement as a Sphere of Usefulness." But at once the 
query arises, Usefulness for whom? Everybody? No; 
naturally for those that have been to college. So we 
question the matter until finally the whole statement is 
formulated : " The College Settlement as a Sphere of 
Usefulness for Educated Men." The general subject 
thus holds in solution all the particular topics. It is the 
business of the orator to bring the reagent of his own 
thinking into contact with his general subject, and from 
it precipitate a particular topic in the form of a prop- 
osition, which not only he but his hearers can measure, 
and see and. feel. When the proposition is thus revealed, 
and not till then, are the hearers in a condition of mind 
to listen with patience and intelligence to the unfolding 
of the speaker's thought, and to weigh with discrimi- 
nation and confidence the question as presented to them. 
By its aid they are saved from vagueness and haziness of 
impression. After listening to an address thus centered 
in one definite thought, hearers are never heard express- 
ing doubt as to what the speaker has been aiming at. 
They do not feel that he has been talking about every- 
thing in general and nothing in particular. They do not 
regard the orator as a man who has been " drawing a 
bow at a venture." On the contrary they realize that the 
oratorical archery has been directed at the " bull's-eye," 
whether it has pierced that mark or not. 

3. The Discussion. — The discussion may be defined as 
that part of an oration which contains the development 



26 The Making of an Oration 

of the thought expressed in the proposition. The propo- 
sition is the germ; the discussion is the outgrowth of 
that germ. It bears a relation to the proposition analo- 
gous to that which a full-grown tree bears to the seed 
from which the tree sprung. In the proposition is the 
heart of the speech; the discussion is the body of the 
speech, through every fiber of which the heart's blood 
beats to give character and vitality. 

When once the proposition is settled upon and stated 
in words, then comes the work of so developing this 
proposition as to give it the desired significance and 
requisite weight with the hearers. What the develop- 
ment shall be will depend upon the nature of the propo- 
sition and the attitude toward it held and desired on 
the part of the hearers. The discussion may expound, 
unfold, amplify, illustrate, exemplify, prove, apply, or 
in any way develop the attitude of the speaker toward 
the thought contained in essence in the proposition. 

It is easy to be seen that the discussion constitutes the 
bulk of the discourse, and that it lays the heaviest burden 
upon the inventive powers of the speech maker. At the 
outset of his preparation he must solve the problem 
as to what shall be the method of his discussion. Shall 
it be mainly illustrative, or argumentative, or hortatory, 
or a combination of all these? In solving this problem, 
he must estimate the value of a number of factors : such 
as the nature of the subject itself, the character of his 
prospective audience, the demands of the occasion, his 
own taste and acquirements. All these elements are 



The Parts of an Oration 27 

prerequisites of a successful discussion. Yet they are 
prerequisites only; they simply aid the speaker in reach- 
ing a conclusion as to his method of procedure. There 
still remains the task of following out the method to a 
successful issue in the prepared and spoken address. 

Although the discussion is simply the amplification of 
the thought contained in the proposition, it by no means 
follows that it is a mere dilution of that thought. Instead 
it offers opportunity for and, indeed, demands sound 
and rigid reasoning, compact thought, solid and stern 
intellectual labor. 

Perhaps someone will ask, Why is the discussion 
necessary? If the proposition contains the essence of the 
entire thought, why not give it to the hearers in that 
simple form and leave them to ruminate over and amplify 
it for themselves? 

( i ) In reply to the above query it may be said in the 
first place that the discussion is necessary because, with- 
out it, the hearers will not grasp the real limits of the 
idea, much less its true significance. They need to have 
its metes and bounds surveyed for them, so that they 
may know how much it means and especially what it 
does not mean. A mere statement of the theme without 
amplification is not likely to suggest to the hearer all 
that it includes. 

(2) Again, the discussion enables the speaker to give 
such bulk to his thought as will compel the hearer to 
have a just appreciation of its value. The real impor- 
tance of an idea may not be grasped unless it is so 



28 The Making of an Oration 

amplified as to make it loom large in the mental vision. 
By thus dwelling upon it, showing its various applica- 
tions, its fundamental truth, its general importance, he 
allows time for his hearers to take it in, and gives it 
body by which they can grasp and hold it. 

(3) Still further, the discussion affords the speaker 
opportunity to impart to his thought the requisite force 
— the impulse and impetus necessary for the accom- 
plishment of his purpose. His ultimate object, as we 
have seen, is to move the will of his hearers. In order 
to attain this object, he must appeal to their intellect 
by expounding or demonstrating his thought, or by estab- 
lishing its truth; or he must move their sensibilities by 
stirring their emotions or quickening their imaginations; 
or more likely he must both appeal to their intellect and 
move their sensibilities. In a word, he must present 
his thought so fully and so attractively as to play upon 
the whole gamut of their souls in order to move them 
ultimately to a response that shall be in harmony with 
his final purpose. He can accomplish this purpose only 
as he has time to give his idea all the qualities that it 
possesses in his own mind. So only can he make his 
thought lay hold of and control his hearers as it lays 
hold of and controls him. 

4. The Conclusion. — The conclusion may be explained 
as that part of the oration in which the thoughts, argu- 
ments, emotions, appeals, and general significance of the 
entire discourse are gathered together and so used with 
reference to the audience, occasion, and purpose, as to 



] 



The Parts of an Oration 29 

make upon the minds, hearts, and determination of those 
that hear, a single, definite, profound, and indelible im- 
pression. Thus the conclusion is the focus of all that 
precedes, in which the various elements of effective 
oratory are centered and where they glow and burn with 
their greatest intensity. 

The conclusion bears to the discussion a relation some- 
what similar to that which the proposition bears to the 
introduction. The proposition is the essence of the intro- 
duction. As the introduction centers the attention upon 
the idea expressed in the proposition, so the conclusion 
gathers together the various lines of treatment contained 
in the discussion and fuses them into a harmonious unit 
in keeping with the spirit and purpose of the whole 
speech. It is what some of the old preachers called the 
M application." It is that part of the discourse in which, 
as it were, a burst of splendor smites the hearer and a 
compelling voice speaks to him, causing him to cry: 
"What wilt thou have me to do?" and answering the 
cry. 

Such being the function of the conclusion, it is 
obviously of prime importance to the speech. Indeed, 
rhetorically, it is the end for which the speech is made. 
If the proposition is the seed and the discussion the full- 
grown tree, then the conclusion may be regarded as the 
fruit for which the seed was planted and the tree grown 
to maturity. To make the purpose of the speech effective, 
therefore, it needs no argument to show that in the 
strength and nobleness of its sentiments; in the clear- 



30 The Making of an Oration 

ness, energy, and beauty of its language; in all the 
qualities that go to make true eloquence, the conclusion 
should be preeminent. Suggestions as to the means of 
securing these qualities need not now concern us. The 
present purpose is to set forth in as simple, clear, and 
definite a manner as possible the nature and functions 
of the essential parts of an oration. 



PART II 



The Plan of an Oration 



CHAPTER IV 

THE PLAN OF AN ORATION 

HAVING considered the nature and kinds of oratory 
and the main rhetorical divisions into which an 
oration is separated, let us now give attention to the 
subject of The Plan. 

What the plan is needs little explanation. The name 
itself defines it. It is simply the framework on which 
the production is built. Its purpose is to insure clear- 
ness, unity, comprehensiveness, order, symmetry, logical 
coherence, progress, and climax to the whole work, — 
in a word, it covers the work of " invention," so far as 
invention has to do with the selection and arrangement 
of material. It includes the logic of discourse, and is as 
essential in making the speech effective in accomplishing 
its chosen end as is the language in which the speech is 
pronounced. 

I — NECESSITY OF A PLAN 

It would seem as if the importance of the plan would 
be sufficiently apparent to obviate the necessity of empha- 
sizing its value ; yet, as a matter of fact, the inexperienced 
writer and speaker seems to have an inborn aversion to 
working from a skeleton. Students almost invariably 

33 



34 The Making of an Oration 

question at first its advantages and yield reluctantly to 
its demands. " Why restrict," they ask, " the free opera- 
tion of the mind? Why shackle the feet of genius or 
clip its wings ? " Adherence to a rigid plan, they claim, 
hinders invention, robs composition of ease and grace, if 
not, indeed, of power, and makes the entire work stiff 
and mechanical. 

Although these sentiments are based on mistaken 
notions, such objections are so prevalent that it is worth 
while to consider, briefly, some of the reasons for insist- 
ing on a carefully wrought-out plan. 

The objection to working from a plan, so far as it has 
any validity, is a confession on the part of the speaker of 
a lack of skill in making and using a plan, not an objection 
to the plan itself. If it makes the speech seem mechan- 
ical, it is because the speaker is not yet a good mechanic. 
It is not any proof that a tool is not a good tool because 
it cuts the workman's fingers. It may be an indication 
that the workman has not learned how to handle the 
tool. It may mean, simply, that he needs more practice. 
Ease and grace of style, when writing or speaking to a 
plan, are largely a matter of skillful transition and of 
command of one's materials. 

For the orator to speak without a plan and expect the 
highest success is as irrational as it would be for the 
architect to build a cathedral without a plan. 

I. In the first place, a carefully wrought-out skeleton 
is a great help both to the speaker and to the hearer. 
It aids the speaker in perspicuity of thought and of dis- 



The Plan of an Oration 35 

cussion. Clear mental action of necessity involves orderly 
mental action. The writer or speaker clarifies his own 
mind on a subject by putting an outline of his thinking 
and reading on that subject in definite, exact, logical, 
and climacteric form — his own thoughts are more lucid 
for the exercise. 

2. Secondly, such analysis is an aid to composition. 
By giving a concreteness to the treatment, it suggests 
lines of reasoning and illustration that would altogether 
elude the mind without such device. When the outline 
is well worked out, the orator can devote all his energies 
to the work of composition. 

3. Still further, a good plan is a help to the memory. 
It answers the purpose of a system of mnemonics, one 
division suggesting another as its supplement or correl- 
ative, as the case may be, and each part serving to remind 
the speaker of the subordinate topics that are marshaled 
under its leadership. 

4. Once more, a thorough analysis also promotes com- 
prehensiveness of treatment. Instead of hindering, it 
helps the work of invention. By the classification of 
materials demanded by his plan, the degree of the com- 
pleteness of his discussion is revealed to the maker of a 
speech at a glance. Is an argument defective? A good 
outline will reveal the fact. Is an illustration needed to 
enforce or vivify the thought? A well-made plan will 
show the need of illumination. Is some point of the 
discussion left unguarded? The plan will indicate the 
fact and point out the place that demands further forti- 



36 The Making of an Oration 

fication. Is an appeal made to wrong motives ? Or is it 
not legitimately drawn from the discussion that precedes ? 
The plan will call attention to the fallacy and direct to 
the right path. Whatever be the defect in the discussion, 
a well ordered plan will reveal the deficiency and suggest 
measures for remedying it. 

5. Another reason for insisting on a careful plan is 
that it promotes unity. As the proposition insures a 
center of thought, so the plan promotes a development 
on the basis of that center. He must, indeed, be a wild 
thinker who can deliberately make a plan wander inco- 
herently over the surface of a subject, until his produc- 
tion is a mere crazy quilt of logic, beginning somewhere 
in the region of the nowhere and ending at the same 
place. To classify materials in the plan is to unify those 
materials in the discussion. 

6. Again, a well ordered plan is a promoter of progress. 
It aids the speaker in getting on in his work. At every 
step he feels, and his hearers are made to feel, that he 
is advancing by a chosen route. He is not, as someone 
has well said, perpetually " marching round the periphery 
of a treadwheel ; not a top, spinning on its own axis but 
never advancing." He can realize at every division of 
his plan that so much is done : he has finished that, he is 
ready to consider this ; he is so far along toward his goal. 

7. The last advantage of a good plan that needs here to 
be mentioned is that it promotes permanence of impres- 
sion. If it is a help to the memory of the orator in 
pronouncing his speech, it is no less a help to the memory 



The Plan of an Oration 37 

of the listener in retaining that speech. A well articulated 
discourse is the one that best fixes the attention and that 
consequently pierces deepest the recollection of an audi- 
ence. The various divisions of his speech are the nails 
with which the speaker fastens his leading thoughts into 
the minds of those that hear. They serve to give weight, 
dignity, force, velocity to his thought and style, and 
consequently the listeners are more deeply and lastingly 
moved than could otherwise be the case. 

SUMMARY 

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. It is 
this: in every way a thorough outline is a great advan- 
tage. Indeed, it is not too much to say that upon it 
depends the prosperity of the speech. It promotes clear- 
ness, helps in the composition, aids the memory of both 
speaker and hearer, secures unity of treatment, gives 
comprehensiveness to the discussion, and promotes per- 
manence of impression. It is well named the " skeleton/' 
A skeleton is not in itself a " thing of beauty," but it is 
that which gives beauty and flexibility, strength and life 
to the whole structure. It is the skeleton that enables 
the speech to struggle and toil, to dance and run. 

Now the question arises, to what extent the skeleton 
should appear in the finished work. Enough has already 
been said to suggest the rational answer. The young 
writer and speaker is ordinarily too fearful of making 
his production mechanical by announcing the divisions of 
his discourse. Doubtless this dread is unwarranted. We 



38 The Making of an Oration 

may set it down as a principle that a discussion which 
seems to a speaker unnecessarily rigid and formal will 
ordinarily impress the hearer as only carefully and help- 
fully constructed. The speaker is familiar with the plan 
and its development; the hearer meets the skeleton for 
the first time in the spoken address, clothed with flesh 
and blood. Consequently the hearer is not unduly im- 
pressed with the bones of the discourse; he is, rather, 
conscious of its symmetry and strength. 

It is a law of the mind that whatever has been found 
helpful to the speaker, in exploring his way through the 
discourse, will be found equally helpful to the listener in 
following the same track of thought. Is it not rational 
to conclude, therefore, that the wise speaker will state, 
as he proceeds, the main divisions of his plan so clearly 
that the audience will be keenly alive to the progress he 
is making and to the corners he turns? Such state- 
ments have well been called both mileposts and finger 
posts on the way — they show how far the speaker has 
come and point out the road he intends to follow. With- 
out them, the line of thought, especially if it be at all 
profound or intricate, may be as obscure as a journey 
through an African wilderness. The hearer is in danger 
of losing his way and becoming utterly lost in the wilds 
of an erratic logic. 

The degree to which the plan should appear in the 
finished discourse will depend partly upon the subject 
and the audience. Some propositions are so familiar, or 
have been so clearly presented by a previous speaker 



The Plan of an Oration 39 

or by the occasion itself, and some audiences are 
so intelligent, that there will be no great difficulty in 
following the speech ; but in even such a rare combination 
of favoring circumstances, it will usually be an advan- 
tage to have the principal points of discussion announced 
clearly and sharply. Hearers always have a feeling of 
satisfaction in knowing substantially what is before them. 
It will be noticed that emphasis is laid upon the impor- 
tance of stating the main divisions of the speech, as that 
speech is pronounced. It may be assumed that the 
orator will use many details of outline, in preparing his 
speech, that he will not point out in the delivery as parts 
of the skeleton. 



CHAPTER V 

THE CHOICE OF A THEME 

ONE of the most perplexing problems for the inex- 
perienced speaker is to make a wise choice of a 
theme. The young orator sees before him an occasion 
when he will be expected to make a speech. It may be 
a commencement oration, or a class-day speech, or a 
student's oration in a contest or as a class exercise, or an 
address on education, or a speech on some political or 
social occasion, or a sermon, or a memorial address, or 
a reunion speech, or a convention harangue, or an address 
on any one of a thousand occasions, that is desired. 

The first question that he naturally asks himself is, 
"What shall I speak about?" This question may be 
substantially answered for him by the occasion itself, or 
he may be left free to choose, within such limits as are 
dictated by the canons of good taste. In any case the 
question is one of supreme importance. Success or 
failure will depend largely upon the answer it receives. 
Of course every speech maker must, in the last analysis, 
be the one to decide what he shall take as the precise 
topic of his discourse. If he have a particle of the orator- 
ical instinct, he knows better than any other his own 
tastes and powers, the themes that stir him most pro- 

40 



The Choice of a Theme 41 

foundly, the topics with which he is most familiar. 
Consequently no one can dictate to him the choice of a 
theme, if he is to do his best. But, while no specific 
directions can be given as to this matter in any particular 
case, certain general principles may be laid down, which 
may always be wisely observed by him who would be a 
successful speaker. 

i. Perhaps the first qualification that a theme should 
possess is that it should be practical — that is, capable of 
calling for action, a course of action, or a positive decision 
of the will. It should not be a subject " in the air," or in 
the upper ether of an erratic imagination ; it should stand 
with its feet upon the solid ground of substantial thought 
or concrete fact or sincere conviction. It should have 
something to do with real life as men have to meet and 
solve the questions of life from day to day. This does 
not mean that it has necessarily to deal with material 
things alone ; but with opinions, with ideals, with aspira- 
tions, with all those questions that go to make up great 
character and great civilization. The possible range of 
topics is as broad as human interests: but they must be 
more than the speculations of dreamers on mere abstrac- 
tions. Those medieval ecclesiastics who disputed as to 
how many angels could stand at once on the point of a 
needle, or who argued fiercely as to whether a man that 
inadvertently swallowed a prematurely cooked spring 
chicken while eating an egg on Friday had violated a 
law of the church which forbids meat on that day, were 
hard pressed for a subject. Had they assailed, instead, 



42 The Making of an Oration 

the corruptions of the contemporary clergy and preached 
a crusade of reform, they would have had a far more 
tangible, if less agreeable, subject of discourse. And 
that, because it would have been real and capable of prac- 
tical application in actual life. Jesus Christ was doubt- 
less the greatest orator that the world has seen; and it 
will be noticed that his sermons dealt with the affairs of 
everyday life as he saw them in the world around him, 
and yet that they contained such universal truths that 
they have to do with human character and human life of 
all ages. In this particular as well as in others they may 
well be studied as models. 

2. In the second place the theme chosen should possess 
the quality of originality. That is, it should be suggested 
by the speaker's own thinking and studies. This does not 
necessarily mean that the subject in itself is new, nor 
necessarily that the speaker's ideas of it are new; he 
may not develop a thought that has not been treated by 
others ; but it is his own thought, treated in his own way ; 
consequently it will lay hold of him more powerfully, and 
he will present it to others more effectively than would 
otherwise be possible. It will stir him with all the en- 
thusiasm of a new discovery, and so he will discuss it 
with an energy that he could not manifest with regard 
to a theme toward which he is indifferent or that possesses 
for him but a languid interest. 

3. The preceding remark suggests as a third principle 
to be regarded in choosing a theme the idea that it should 
be attractive. 



The Choice of a Theme 43 

(i) Attractive to the speaker himself. A subject that 
draws him with a resistless appeal, that quickens his intel- 
lect, kindles his feelings, stirs his imagination, strengthens 
his convictions with the sense of its profound and press- 
ing importance, will be far more fruitful in rugged think- 
ing and eloquent presentation than will be any other 
subject, equally good in itself, that is not to him so 
attractive. He that speaks con amore may always be 
trusted to set forth the truth, the beauty, the nobility, the 
importance, the persuasive force of his thought to the 
full extent of his powers. 

(2) Still further, the theme should, so far as may be, 
be attractive to the audience. A commonplace subject, at 
least a commonplace statement of a subject, will labor 
under a disadvantage with an audience and will be greeted 
with inattention or at least with listless attention. Care 
should be taken, therefore, that the subject either be 
fresh or that it be so clothed in new attire as to seem 
fresh to the audience. Thus the stimulus of novelty will 
be administered to their interest. A familiar truth ap- 
proached from a new angle will take on unexpected 
beauty by being seen in a new light. Shakspere rarely 
invented a new plot; his stories were stories that were 
well known among the traditions, legends, and literature 
of his own and earlier days all through western Europe. 
But he gave to these familiar stories such freshness of 
statement and such new combinations that they had all 
the freshness to the people of his own time and subse- 



44 The Making of an Oration 

quent times of new ideas. So must the orator aim to put 
the old wine of his thought into new bottles of expres- 
sion, if he would make it appeal to his hearers. 

4. In the fourth place, the speaker, in choosing a 
theme, should seek one that has the quality of adapt- 
ability. By this we mean: 

(1) First that it should be suited to the prospective 
audience. The orator should take into account the habits 
of thought, interests, intellectual capacities, and tastes of 
those that are to listen to him. A theme that would re- 
quire an argument suited in thought and style to the 
Supreme Court of the United States would hardly be 
appropriate to a jury of average day laborers. A topic 
that demands the closest thought and the most extended 
and vigorous discussion is not wisely chosen for a brief 
address before the infant class of a Sunday school. Nor 
will his speech be received with favor if the theme be 
distasteful to the audience. The wise speaker will con- 
sult both their tastes and their capacities. A theme 
adapted to a company of " society ladies " from Fifth 
Avenue must be different, or at least must be couched 
in different language, from one appropriate for a gang of 
thugs from the Bowery. 

(2) By " adaptability " we mean, further, that the 
theme should be suited to the speaker himself. This 
principle has already been partially implied by the sug- 
gestion that the speaker should choose a theme that he 
likes : 

(a) But, while it should be adapted to his aesthetic 



The Choice of a Theme 45 

capacities, it should be no less carefully adjusted to his 
physical capabilities. A proposition that calls for a half 
day's vigorous argument is not well suited to a sickly 
speaker with puny frame and squeaky voice. Webster 
was peculiarly fortunate in this respect. In his profes- 
sional and political career he had to wrestle with great 
questions and had to discuss those questions before great 
audiences. So with Beecher and that prince of preachers, 
Charles Spurgeon. These great men stood in the front 
rank among the orators of the nineteenth century, each 
without a peer in his particular field. Each of them had 
to discuss majestic themes. They doubtless discussed 
those themes with the highest success partly because each 
of them was possessed of a robust physical nature capa- 
ble of great endurance and of a magnificent organ voice 
whose music could be made to reach and sway vast mul- 
titudes. Probably no more splendid triumphs of real 
eloquence were ever won than those of Mr. Beecher, 
already alluded to, in which he wrested victory from the 
reluctant hands of hostile British mobs during our Civil 
War; but it is doubtful if he could ever have gained 
those brilliant victories had he not possessed a physical 
nature in harmony with the noble themes he had to 
defend and the almost appalling conditions he had to 
face. Or, to reverse the statement, he undertook to 
discuss themes that he was physically able to handle, 
(b) Still more, by " adaptibility " we mean that for the 
highest success the speaker must choose themes suited to 
himself intellectually. The orator needs to know himself 



46 The Making of an Oration 

and his powers on the one hand and the demands and pos- 
sibilities of a subject on the other, in order to make the 
most of his subject as he presents it to his audience. The 
precept of Horace, as given in the Ars Poetica, still holds : 

Examine well, ye Pisoes, weigh with care 

What suits your genius, what your strength will bear. 

He that follows this precept will not labor with a theme 
beyond his strength nor stoop to one beneath it. A 
pigmy cannot do the work of a Titan, nor should a Titan 
dawdle over the task of a pigmy. Michael Angelo can 
do better than make snow images. 

(c) Finally his theme should be adapted to the speaker 
morally. Audiences are justly exacting in this particular. 
They demand a consistency between the orator and his 
theme. The argumentuni ad hominem is with them very 
important and far-reaching. A man that has a reputa- 
tion for penuriousness will not be a very effective 
speaker on generosity. One of known or even reputed 
immorality will not shine very brilliantly as a preacher of 
the Christian virtues. 

Several years ago a great religious convention was in 
session in New York City. At one of the evening sessions 
a tremendous audience had assembled to hear a distinguished 
speaker, who had a national reputation for eloquence as a 
political orator. But when the hour came the orator did not 
appear, much to the disappointment of the gathering. No 
reason was given for the failure of the speaker. A few 
months afterward the delinquent orator was publicly accused 
and convicted of gross wickedness. He knew at the time of 
his failure to keep his appointment of the charges that were 



The Choice of a Theme 47 

about to be made, and recognized the unfitness of his at- 
tempting to speak on such an occasion and on such a subject 
when he was conscious of the lack of harmony between his 
theme and his own moral character. 

If the speaker can not treat well a subject that he him- 
self knows is adverse to his own character, how much 
less can he treat it adequately if the audience likewise 
thinks him ethically unfit! 



CHAPTER VI 

THE OBJECT 

AFTER the orator has settled upon his theme and 
decided what he intends to persuade his hearers to 
do, he will find it an advantage to state his purpose in the 
form of a brief imperative sentence. This imperative is 
primarily for his own guidance in accumulating material, 
in formulating his plan, and, indeed, in the entire work of 
invention. This imperative we may call the " Object." 

It has already been shown that the most distinctive 
characteristic of oratory is persuasion. It is this element, 
more than anything else, that differentiates this form of 
discourse from all other types. The speaker must never 
lose sight of the fact that he aims to induce his hearers 
to do something, immediately or mediately. That is why 
he must choose an object rather than a subject for an 
oration. The orator is a speaker with a mission. He 
finds the end of his labor not in the discourse itself, but 
in the audience. 

The object, then, as the ultimate end of the oration is of 
supreme importance to the orator's success. It should 
permeate, pervade, dominate the entire discourse, from 
the first word of the exordium to the last word of the 
peroration. Its supremacy in the speech, then, demands 

48 



The Object 49 

for its statement in the plan the most perfect form pos- 
sible. Experience has shown that the best form, as 
already stated, is the briefest, clearest, most precise im- 
perative. Any other form exposes the speaker to the 
danger of missing the appeal to the will. Suppose the 
student is making a plan for a class oration. He writes : 

" My object is to prove " But you may prove and 

not persuade. To convince the intellect falls far short of 
moving the will. He tries again. "Object: To induce 

my hearers to believe " But they may believe and 

not do. " Devils believe." Once more. "Object: To 

induce my hearers to feel " But feeling is by no 

means synonymous with doing. "Well, then — object: 
To induce my hearers to do so and so." Very well ! Why 
not say, then : " Do so and so " ? Instead of saying : 
" My object is to induce my hearers to oppose unrestricted 
immigration," why not write : " Oppose unrestricted im- 
migration ! " Such a form is simple, and, more than that, 
it indicates directly and unmistakably the appeal to the 
will. Thus it serves as a rudder to the speaker's mental 
action, to hold him steadily to his chosen goal. The im- 
perative is a command, and as such is a bugle call to thrill 
and brace, and marshal to action the entire production. 

The object is really the test of all the orator's work. 
By it he tries the matter that comes to his hand ; all that 
will not aid in the furtherance of his purpose he rejects. 
The object is the divining rod that he passes over the mass 
of material collected, in order to test the value of that 
material for his purpose. It is the mercury, which dis- 



50 The Making of an Oration 

covers and attracts to itself the gold. In gathering ma- 
terial for his speech let the orator put himself through 
an oratorical catechism with a series of questions some- 
thing like this: " What, exactly, is my object? " With 
the answer clearly in mind, let him continue the catechism 
with the question: "Will this further my object?" If 
it will, then he will have use for that material. If not, 
however attractive the thought or fact in question may be 
in itself, he must reject it. It is not of value for his 
present purpose. It may be of value for some other occa- 
sion, but not for this. Keep it for that other occasion. 
In arranging material, in like manner, let the speaker 
ask himself the question : " Will this best further my 
object here?" "Where will this best further my ob- 
ject ? " His response to such questions will determine the 
relative position that each chosen item should occupy 
in the discourse. By rigid and faithful observance of this 
method, the important quality of logical climax will be 
secured. Still further, the object will determine the 
relative prominence to be given to each item of the 
speaker's material. Let him ask himself : " How im- 
portant is this necessary idea or fact to the furtherance of 
my object?" The answer to this query will determine 
the emphasis that he should lay upon that item. Thus he 
will secure logical perspective, and in the development 
of his work he will secure, also, literary or oratorical 
perspective. 

Since the object is for the speaker's own guidance, it 
is usually wise not to state it, at least in the form men- 



The Object 51 

tioned, to the audience. Human nature is so constituted 
that if you tell a man that you intend to induce him to do 
a certain thing, or adopt a certain course of life, or pursue 
a particular line of action, you arouse at once his oppo- 
sition, and he mentally says : " Do it if you can," and 
shuts his teeth hard in the determination not to be 
moved. Command him : " Do so and so," and his pug- 
nacity makes him say to himself and probably to you: 
" I won't." Consequently, it is ordinarily better not to 
announce the object as an imperative, but so to use it as 
to lead the hearers to act in accordance with its behest, 
without a thought that they are not acting from their own 
unprompted desires. In those cases where the desired 
action is revealed at the outset, as in addresses to juries 
or legislatures, if the position of the orator is formally 
announced it should be stated as his own attitude, or as 
the proposition, but not as an imperative. To take such 
a course would endanger the very purpose of the speech. 
He may say, " I take this position," or " This seems to 
me the true attitude," or " We should act thus on this 
question," or, " I appeal to you to do so and so," when 
it would not do to say, " Do this," or " You must do this." 
To his audience, as it exists in his imagination while pre- 
paring his speech, he says : " Do ! " To his audience as 
it actually exists before him while delivering his speech, 
he says : " Do n't you think it best to do ? " " These are 
the considerations on which I urge you to do." " In 
view of these facts, what shall we do? " 

That is, the orator must use tact and common sense in 



52 The Making of an Oration 

bringing his audience to his object. Sometimes he will 
have one professed, but quite another real object. By 
this is not meant that the speaker deals unfairly or dis- 
honestly with his audience, but simply that he uses good 
judgment in dealing with men and does not betray him- 
self into the hands of his enemies before he has had a 
chance to fortify himself for their possible opposition. 
Thus he will take them by guile. For illustration, Shak- 
spere makes Mark Antony, in his speech over the dead 
body of Caesar, say, " If you have tears, prepare to shed 
them now ; " that is, after the introduction, he avows in 
the body of his speech, as his object, to make his hearers 
feel the pathos of " Caesar's fall." His real purpose is 
revealed after the mob, to whom he has been speaking, 
rushes off with the frenzied cries : " Revenge ! burn ! 
kill ! " when he says with great satisfaction : " Now let 
it work. Mischief, thou art afoot." That is, his avowed 
object was, " Weep; " his real object, " Riot." 



CHAPTER VII 

HOW TO GATHER MATERIAL 

AFTER he has settled upon his general theme, and has 
formulated that theme in an imperative sentence, 
the first thing to be done by the orator who has to pre- 
pare a speech is the accumulation of material. There 
are three especial processes to be pursued in accomplishing 
this work. 

i. The first of these processes to be mentioned is 
thought. This is placed first, because chronologically it 
should precede everything else in the work of specific 
preparation. Usually, likewise, it is first in importance. 
Was it Richter who said : " Never read till you have 
thought yourself empty " ? By such reflection the maker 
of a speech will insure an originality of theme and of 
treatment that otherwise would hardly be possible. His 
way of looking at his subject will be, above all, his own 
way. There must be some reasons why he has chosen 
a given subject and why he holds a given attitude toward 
that subject. Let him write out those reasons in the 
briefest possible form. What does he know of the sub- 
ject? What does he think of it — of its relations to 
truth, to society, to the state, to mankind, to the highest 
ideals, and of his prospective audience in relation to 
these questions? Let him write out all his thoughts, all 

53 



54 The Making of an Oration 

his information, all his convictions, as they come to his 
mind, without special reference to logical order except 
such as will occur to any clear thinker whose ideas will 
have a tendency to fall into line even though no conscious 
attempt be made to marshal them in regular order. 
Neither need any special effort be made in this prelimi- 
nary work to secure literary qualities. If a good illustra- 
tion, or a happy metaphor, or a felicitous expression 
flashes before him during this process, as probably it will, 
let him note it with sufficient fullness to enable him to 
recall and reproduce it when he returns to examine the 
products of his thinking after they have become cold. 
Thus he takes snapshots at the mental visions that flit be- 
fore him, and fixes impressions which he can subsequently 
develop at his leisure and place in the proper framework 
of his plan when completed for use. 

This process of rumination aids the speaker in digest- 
ing and assimilating his knowledge, makes his thought 
definite, shows him how much he knows of the subject 
and, especially, how little he knows. His mind may be so 
full and his knowledge be so extensive and definite and 
well digested that further accumulation of material will 
be unnecessary and undesirable. The story of Webster's 
remark with reference to his preparation for his speech 
known as the " Reply to Hayne " is well known. A 
friend expressed surprise that the great expounder of 
the constitution could make such a speech without oppor- 
tunity for preparation. " Sir," Webster replied, " I have 
been preparing that speech forty years." In other words, 



How to Gather Material 55 

he had been, from boyhood, studying the doctrine of nulli- 
fication and meditating on the constitution as the supreme 
law of the land, until the whole question saturated every 
fiber of his being. When the occasion arose, therefore, 
all that was needed was for him to put his abundant 
material in proper order. But that was a rare occasion as 
Webster was a rare orator. With most speakers and for 
most subjects, more than thought is needed for the high- 
est success. When that process is completed there must 
follow the second process of gathering material. 

2. This second process in the accumulation of material 
is reading. If Richter laid down the maxim : " Never 
read till you have thought yourself empty," he also said : 
" Never write till you have read yourself full." How 
minute and how extensive this reading should be will 
depend largely upon the nature of the subject. Reading, 
moreover, that is a mere cramming process will be of little 
value to the orator. However broad it be, it must be dis- 
tilled in the alembic of his own mind before he can make 
its essence his own. 

The order of reading should be, usually, first of a 
general nature, such as cyclopedia articles. Thus will be 
gained a comprehensive understanding of the subject. 
Then should come, say, review articles, and afterward 
the treatises and original authorities. 

For strictly oratorical work minute and exhaustive 
study on the subject of discourse may not always be an 
advantage. If it be not thoroughly assimilated, instead 
of furnishing intellectual and oratorical pabulum it will 



56 The Making of an Oration 

clog the free operation of the mind and induce mental 
dyspepsia. Howsoever complete the reading, it should 
be, above all things, suggestive and stimulating, setting the 
speaker's own mind and imagination in motion and arous- 
ing the oratorical spirit to action. No more remarkable 
illustration of vast and exact learning, made available 
for oratorical purposes, can be found in the literature of 
eloquence than is furnished by some of the speeches 
of Edmund Burke, particularly those on " The Nabob 
of Arcot's Debts," " The East India Bill," and all those 
on the impeachment of Warren Hastings. But these 
subjects were exceptional in the nature of their themes 
as Edmund Burke was himself exceptional among men. 
He had read, and so every orator should read, broadly 
enough to cover the ground to be traversed by the speech 
and thoroughly enough to make him master of the par- 
ticular phase of the subject to be discussed. Such read- 
ing not only increases the speaker's knowledge and 
supplements his thinking, but modifies or confirms, as 
the case may be, his views by the results of the labors 
of others. In any case it gives him greater confidence in 
the correctness of his conclusions and helps him to feel 
that he " speaks as one having authority," a consciousness 
which one must always have if he would speak with 
power. 

3. A third important process in the work of gathering 
material is found in conversation. Richter might wisely 
have added to his aphorism : " Never pronounce your 
speech till you have talked yourself clear." Discussion 



How to Gather Material 57 

is a wonderful clarifier of thought. One does not know 
how muddy his ideas are till he has passed them through 
the filter of conversation. Let him, then, who has 
" thought himself empty " and " read himself full," pre- 
paratory to making a speech, talk with some intelligent 
and sympathetic friend. By " sympathetic " is not meant, 
necessarily, one that takes the same view of the subject 
as the speaker himself. Indeed it may be an advantage 
that the listener disagree ; for then the speaker will better 
learn his weak points than might otherwise be possible. 
By sympathetic is rather meant one who is interested 
in the subject and in the speaker. Nor is it necessary 
that the conversation be with one as well informed as 
himself; the very effort of conversing on the matter 
enables him to put his ideas in definite language and thus 
deliver his soul, and also place him in a position to use to 
advantage any suggestions that are offered. So will his 
thought and his treatment of it be made lucid. 

Daniel Webster, when speaking of the value of con- 
versation to the orator, said to Charles Sumner : 

In my education, I have found that conversation with the 
intelligent men I have had the good fortune to meet has 
done more for me than books ever did; for I learn more 
from them in a talk of half an hour than I could possibly 
learn from their books. Their minds, in their conversation, 
come into intimate contact with my own mind; and I absorb 
certain secrets of their power, whatever be its quality, which 
I could not have detected in their works. Converse, 
converse, converse with living men, face to face, and mind 
to mind, — that is one of the best sources of knowledge. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE ORDERING OF MATERIAL 

AFTER the work of gathering material has been com- 
pleted, the speech maker must solve the problem of 
putting the material so accumulated into proper form 
for advantageous use. In other words, he must make, on 
the basis of his gathered material, a framework or skele- 
ton of the structure he purposes to build. The various 
steps of this process may be intimated as follows : 

i. A Provisional Analysis. — After he has thoroughly 
thought through his subject, as before explained (p. 53 
sq.), and has taken notes covering the results of his 
thinking, the maker of a speech should pass these notes 
under the closest scrutiny. As a result of such examina- 
tion, he will find that his knowledge and ideas, as thus 
indicated, can be combined into a few more or less 
homogeneous and clearly defined groups. Let him formu- 
late for these groups general statements, under which the 
various items can be included. They will constitute an 
outline for the main parts of his speech. Under each 
one of them, as the work proceeds, may be gathered the 
various subdivisions that indicate the line of development 
of these several main divisions. When this work is com- 
pleted he will have gone far toward building up a plan 
of his discussion that will be of great value, indeed 

58 



The Ordering of Material 59 

altogether essential to the highest success, in the sub- 
sequent labor of further accumulation of material and 
development of his discourse. 

The plan as thus made will be, of course, provisional, 
subject to modification as the result of the further work 
of reading and conversation. After these processes are 
completed the plan should be put into final form, and 
stated so fully and suggestively that the speaker can then 
give his powers wholly to the work of composition. Then 
let him hold to the plan thus formulated from beginning 
to end. If this work be adequately done, no helpful 
ideas will be likely to crowd upon him in the heat of the 
discourse that may not be appropriately included some- 
where in this plan. 

2. Statement of the Proposition and Object. — The na- 
ture of the proposition has already been discussed, as has 
also the proper form for what we have called " the ob- 
ject," or proposition turned into the form of an impera- 
tive. This object is to dominate the entire work, from 
the accumulation of material, through the introduction, 
the discussion, and the conclusion, to the delivery of the 
speech. Since it is desired to make our work as prac- 
tical as possible, it may be helpful to choose a subject, 
and illustrate the process of plan making by actually 
working out a plan on that subject. 

As a working basis, then, for the development of a 
plan, let us assume a subject already suggested, — "The 
College Settlement." From this subject was derived the 
theme : " The College Settlement as a Sphere of Useful- 



60 The Making of an Oration 

ness for Educated Men." This theme, turned into proper 
form for the "object," would be, say, "Let Educated 
Men Engage in College Settlement Work." As it is 
ordinarily better to plan the introduction after it is clearly 
known what is to be introduced, it will be best to wait 
for that until the rest of the plan is put in order. 

(3) Plan of the Discussion. — The next step, then, in 
our work is to plan the discussion. The final result of this 
process will be developed in response to the question: 
" How may I, out of the material gathered in the processes 
of thought, reading, and conversation, so expound, estab- 
lish, illuminate, and enforce my proposition as best to 
accomplish my object? The answer to this question will 
have been partially reached in the provisional analysis 
already considered. A fuller answer must now be found. 

Returning to our proposition we begin to question it: 
Sphere of Usefulness? Usefulness to whom? And we 
conclude that it would be " useful " to those among whom 
such work was done — useful to them as individuals, as 
members of society, and as citizens. So, likewise, it would 
be " useful " to the community and to the state. But 
" useful " in what particulars ? And we reason that it 
would be beneficial to the poor, in teaching them industry, 
in teaching by both precept and example the principles 
of economy and thrift, in doing away with certain preju- 
dices, in making them intelligent and more moral, in 
leading them to help themselves and one another ; that it 
would help the community and the state as a result of 
thus elevating the people so affected. But we conclude, 



The Ordering of Material 61 

likewise, that such work would be " useful " to those that 
engaged in it, as well as to others, because it would bring 
them into personal and practical relations to and sym- 
pathy with the poor, the ignorant, the vicious — and 
would thus broaden and ennoble their own character by 
cultivating the spirit of unselfish devotion to the uplift- 
ing work of helpfulness to others. Thus, in every way, 
such service would help bring them to an altruistic, ex- 
perimental appreciation of the great truth of human 
brotherhood. We reason, further, that such service would 
be " useful " in honoring God — in its spirit, in its pur- 
poses and in its results. 

But why a " Sphere of Usefulness for Educated 
Men " ? And we answer, because college settlement work 
was especially designed by and for such men ; because it 
needs men of large intelligence and training to appreci- 
ate and help solve the problems with which such work 
has to deal ; and because, by thus bringing the extremes 
of culture and ignorance into common interests, the pur- 
poses for which the enterprise was inaugurated will be 
best subserved. 

By examining these and other results of thought and 
study concerning our proposition, we find that they can 
be grouped under three or four general classes of motives. 
There are motives of personal advantage, or duty to self ; 
of duty to others in their individual as well as associated 
capacities ; motives of duty toward God ; and there is the 
motive arising from the fact that education fits one for 
the appreciation of and usefulness in this kind of work. 



62 The Making of an Oration 

A little further analysis enables us to combine all these 
motives in the following divisions : 

Discussion. — College Settlement Work. 

i. Promotes social and political reform (a) by dimin- 
ishing poverty and encouraging thrift ; (b) by diminishing 
crime; (c) by increasing intelligence; (d) by elevating the 
standard of morals; (e) by promoting the spirit of 
brotherhood; (f) by developing high ideals of patriotism. 

2. Encourages the highest aims and cultivates the 
noblest character (a) in those with whom such work is 
done; (b) in the workers themselves. 

3. Appeals especially to educated men because the 
power and possibilities for usefulness which education 
gives impose peculiar obligations. 

It will be noticed that the divisions of the above dis- 
cussion are the result of several processes, which may be 
stated in the following maxims : 

(1.) Write down briefly, as the result of all your labor 
of gathering material, the facts and ideas that seem at 
first thought to promote your object; 

(2.) Examine the value of each of these facts and 
thoughts by asking if it will really promote your object; 

(3.) Combine the ideas that you select, by the preced- 
ing process, as promotive of your object, into expres- 
sions that are coordinate in both substance and form ; 

(4.) Arrange these coordinate statements in the order 
of climax, so as to secure the most effective accomplish- 
ment of your object. 

These processes should secure for the discussion : 



The Ordering of Material 63 

(a) Unity on the basis of the "object"; 

(b) Divisions of equal rank as related to the object 
and clearly distinct one from another; 

(c) Climax of effect in attaining the object. 

4. Planning the Conclusion. — The nature and purpose 
of this part of the oration have already been considered. 
The substance of this part should always be indicated in 
the plan. There are various forms that the conclusion 
may take. It may consist of : 

(1.) A summary of the several divisions that make 
up the discussion. If this method be pursued, the recapit- 
ulation should not be so formal as to involve loss of 
interest and thus weaken the effect. As the design is 
to persuade, the conclusion should be the strongest, the 
most impressive, the most moving part of the speech. 

(2.) The conclusion may consist of an amplification of 
the final point of the discussion. As in some respects the 
most important division, this part of the discussion may 
very properly be emphasized, illustrated, and enlarged 
upon for the closing impression. 

(3.) The conclusion may take the form of an excita- 
tion of emotion as the outcome of what has preceded. 
This is called the impassioned conclusion or peroration, 
and is very effective when it has been preceded by an 
earnest, thoughtful, closely reasoned, elevated discussion. 

(4.) Further, the final words may take the direction of 
an incitement to action as an outcome of what has been 
presented in the body of the speech. The appeal to the 
will, however, in this degenerate age, may better saturate 



64 The Making of an Oration 

and pervade the speech from the beginning than come 
formally at the end as was once the custom. Now and 
then, nevertheless, when the audience is aroused or when 
circumstances favor and it may be demand action, it is 
advisable to press the thought home to the hearts, con- 
sciences, and decision of hearers, and ask them face to 
face, " What are you going to do about it ? " with the 
assurance that self-interest, or shame, or duty, or indig- 
nation, or pity, or some other sentiment will constrain 
them to do something. 

(5.) Another common method is to combine two or 
even more of the foregoing forms of conclusion. 

Now, if we return to our sample plan, we discover that 
a full discussion of the points outlined would be weighty 
and possibly extended. If so, it will be advantageous to 
refresh the memory of the hearers by a brief recapitula- 
tion. Likewise, since the college settlement affords a field 
for such noble service, it is important that many of those 
that have had the advantages of a college training enter 
such service. Thus we reach as the plan of our 

Conclusion. — A recapitulation, followed by an expres- 
sion of the hope that every institution of learning will 
send out men and women to engage in college settlement 
work. 

5. Planning the Introduction. — The introduction 
should ordinarily be the last part of the discourse to be 
planned. This does not mean that if the speech is writ- 
ten this part should be written last. That is a different 
matter. But before the opening can be planned the 



The Ordering of Material 65 

speaker must know what he is to open ; in order grace- 
fully and with directness to introduce his speech he must 
have a very clear idea of what it is that is to be introduced. 
To survey the best path through the wilderness, the en- 
gineer must know the objective point. 

We have already seen that the purpose of the introduc- 
tion is to lead the hearers as directly as possible to a 
docile consideration of the proposition, and that to ac- 
complish this purpose it may consist of an effort to make 
the audience (a) familiar with all that is necessary to 
an understanding of the discussion; (b) well disposed 
toward the speaker and the theme. 

On examining the discussion that has been planned 
above, we discover that it is about a subject that may not 
be particularly familiar to the average student. Hence the 
introduction may properly include an explanation of col- 
lege settlement work. The question also arises : " Why 
has such service been instituted ? " This question war- 
rants a reference to the evils that result from the condi- 
tions of the poor and vicious in large cities, and so renders 
the hearers " well disposed " toward any effort designed 
to mitigate those evils. So we have, as the outline of our 
introduction leading to the proposition or object, a brief 
reference to the existing evils and a brief explanation of 
the proposed remedy. 

Thus we have traced the general processes of prepar- 
ing a speech up to the completion of a plan. The result 
appears as follows: 



66 The Making of an Oration 

I. Introduction 

i. Evils of poverty in large cities. 
2. Explanation of College Settlement Work as a 
proposed remedy for these evils. 

II. Proposition. — The College Settlement as a sphere 
of usefulness for educated men. 

III. Object. — Let educated men engage in College Set- 
tlement Work. 

IV. Discussion. 

i. College Settlement Work promotes social and 
political reform: 

a. By diminishing poverty and encouraging thrift ; 

b. By decreasing crime ; 

c. By promoting intelligence; 

d. By elevating morals ; 

e. By cultivating the spirit of brotherhood. 

2. College Settlement Work encourages the highest 

aims and cultivates the noblest character: 

a. In those among whom such work is done ; 

b. In those by whom such work is done. 

3. College Settlement Work appeals especially to edu- 

cated men: 

a. Education gives power ; 

b. Education opens possibilities ; 

c. Education imposes peculiar obligations toward 

those that are less fortunate. 

V. Conclusion. 

1. Summary and appeal; 

2. May all institutions of learning soon send out 

men and women to this noble work. 



The Ordering of Material 67 

The foregoing is the plan actually prepared by a stu- 
dent. It is given not as an ideal plan, but rather to 
illustrate, in as informal a way as can well be on paper, 
the general processes of gathering and selecting material 
and of putting that material in form as a guide to the 
speaker in the work of composition. 

The plan is, of course, primarily for the use of the 
speaker himself. The question as to how much of it 
should appear in the finished production when spoken to 
the audience has already been considered. Since it is 
mainly for the use of the speaker, he should go carefully 
through the general outline and note in their appropriate 
places, with fulness sufficient to guide him, all illustra- 
tions, examples, striking phrases, allusions and figures, 
arguments, and ideas, as they occur to him, that he may 
retain them for the most effective use when developing 
his outline. 

It should be said that since the " object " is simply the 
proposition put into the imperative form, it is not essen- 
tial to write both in the completed plan as is done above, 
although there is sometimes an advantage in having both 
forms before the eye. 

PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS 

I. As a most valuable practice in logical and oratorical 
training, the student should regularly practice choosing 
subjects suitable for oratorical treatment and develop 
plans of speeches according to the methods heretofore 
suggested. 



68 The Making of an Oration 

2. Constant class, as well as individual, practice in the 
work of making and criticising plans will be found of 
inestimable value as a means of developing the logical 
and inventive powers as applied to oratorical discourse. 
Every member of a class should present a plan of an 
oration on an assigned subject at an appointed date be- 
fore the class for discussion. Without shrinking, he who 
would become expert in this greatest of all arts must put 
the results of his labors to the test, must subject the 
products of his mining to the crucible of the most pitiless 
criticism. 

Is the subject in itself a good one? Is it fresh, appro- 
priate, interesting, important? Is the proposition legiti- 
mate? Is the " object " properly stated? Are the divi- 
sions of the discussion relevant? Do they further the 
object? Are they mutually exclusive? Are they co- 
ordinate with one another as related to the object? 
Are they coordinate in form? Are they well stated? 
Are they so arranged as to be cumulative in effect? Do 
they include all they should? Do they exclude all they 
should? Is the introduction brief, natural, graceful, 
pleasing, interesting? Is the conclusion effective ? How 
may the plan be improved ? Such are some of the ques- 
tions that the speech maker should ask himself and such 
are questions that others should ask, in criticising plans. 
Half the time devoted to this subject in the classroom, 
may well be devoted to such criticism. Such exercises 
develop both the critical and constructive powers, and 



The Ordering of Material 69 

serve to quicken and enlarge wonderfully what may be 
termed the logical and oratorical instinct. 

The motives set forth in the discussion of the plan 
already outlined are, of course, not to be considered as 
including all possible motives. Oratory, as the all-inclu- 
sive and most complex literary type, is not confined to one 
form. Rational beings, presumably, will not act with 
reference to a given question until they understand that 
question. They must be enlightened. But they must also 
be satisfied that the proposed action is true, or wise, or 
right, or advantageous, or a duty. That is, they must be 
convinced. But they may be convinced and yet not moved 
to action. Their emotions may need to be stirred, their 
imaginations awakened, their passions aroused. In other 
words, they must be excited. That is, the orator may 
need to use all the motives of enlightenment, conviction, 
and excitation in order to persuade his hearers. He 
plays upon the whole gamut of human nature, covering 
the entire range of intellect and sensibilities, that he may 
awaken the will to action. Consequently he may have 
occasion to employ all forms of discourse — exposition, 
description, narration, argumentation, as well as persua- 
sion proper. 

It is not the province of the present discussion to enter 
into details and give many specific rules for the employ- 
ment of these various types of discourse. The purpose 
is, rather, to present general principles, point out funda- 
mental processes and make practical suggestions that 
are invaluable in the actual work of making speeches. 



PART III 



The Composition of an Oration 



CHAPTER IX 

THE COMPOSITION OF AN ORATION 

THE term " composition " as here used applies equally 
well whether the oration is written in full or whether 
it is pronounced without being written. In either case 
the style of the oration differs in many particulars from 
that of the essay, which is written for leisurely reading 
rather than for hearing once for all. 

The reasons for these differences are twofold. First 
come such differences as naturally belong to spoken as 
distinguished from written discourse. Second, the causes 
of these differences are found mainly in the all-important 
fact that oratory aims at the accomplishment of an object 
rather than the discussion of a subject and must attain 
that object in a single utterance, without opportunity, 
on the part of an audience, of a second reading, of 
careful analysis, of leisurely consideration, and of nice 
discrimination and appreciation of the fine distinctions. 

Since the oration must accomplish its purpose in a sin- 
gle impression, the orator has laid upon him a peculiarly 
heavy burden. His speech must be convincing, but not 
stiff and cold ; it must be vivid, but never gaudy ; fervid, 
but never tearful ; sincere, but without cant ; straightfor- 
ward, but courteous; imaginative, but never bombastic. 

73 



74 The Making of an Oration 

It must be impressive and weighty, but not heavy ; vigor- 
ous and virile without being brutal — in a word it must 
be in all ways artistic, but must never be or seem to be 
artificial. The orator must marshal all his forces and 
march them, as Webster truly says, " onward, right on- 
ward to his object." In a brief speech he has laid upon 
him, perhaps, the responsibility of changing and directing 
into new channels the whole current of his hearers* 
thoughts and lives. Surely, no task heavier than his, no' 
victory more glorious! 

But if special difficulties beset the orator, so, likewise, 
peculiar advantages are his. He meets his hearers face 
to face, rather than through the cold, pitiless medium of 
the printed page. He meets them, also, together, rather 
than as segregated, separate, unsympathetic individuals. 
He has the advantage of the flashing eye, the expressive 
countenance, the thrilling voice, the animated gesture, — 
all of those advantages arising from what, to conceal our 
ignorance, we term " personal magnetism." 

Until human nature shall change, there need be no fear 
that oratory will lose its power. The public school and 
the daily paper cannot destroy or even materially limit 
its proper field. Books cannot steal its charms. The 
preacher, the lawyer, the legislator who must advocate 
measures before parliamentary bodies, the agitator, the 
reformer, and others whose business it is to set the world 
to rights, need not be anxious lest increased diffusion of 
knowledge shall deprive them of their kingdom, or trem- 
ble lest they shall be dethroned and left to mourn because, 



Composition of an Oration 75 

like Othello, " their occupation's gone." So long as men 
need to change their actions, or, at least, so long as men 
are not of one opinion as to what action should be in 
every case, so long will there be opportunity for the ex- 
ercise of persuasive speech. 

A common opinion, it is to be feared, among students 
and others who have ambition for public speaking, is that 
orators are born not made. Now this theory sounds 
well and, within certain limits, it has an element of truth. 
No one can become a Demosthenes unless he has the 
gifts of Demosthenes. But there is also in the notion a 
large factor of error. Those that hold this opinion argue 
that one who has the true oratorical spirit, the " divine 
afflatus," will, when occasion arises, speak effectively .and 
eloquently, whether he have studied the maxims of the 
rhetoricians or not; while he who has not this heaven- 
born spirit can never become an orator, though he know 
the rules of the books from title page to " finis." 

This idea is based upon a radical misconception of the 
nature and purposes of oratorical precepts. These pre- 
cepts are not arbitrary inventions in which the rhetoricians 
insist that the would-be speaker shall wrap himself until 
he is only a mummy of his real self before they will 
allow him to be called an orator. On the contrary, they 
are statements of principles which the masters of assem- 
blies of all ages throughout the world have, consciously 
or unconsciously, exemplified in their speeches. The 
statements of the principles have been formulated, in 
other words, because they have been found actually ap- 



76 The Making of an Oration 

plied and illustrated in the great oratory of the world. 
These principles must be observed likewise by all who 
would attain success in this noblest of all arts, and they 
that do not learn such principles from others must strug- 
gle up to them through the great tribulation of personal 
experience and probably of humiliating failures. 

As a matter of fact, orators are both born and made. 
Call the roll of the immortals among them and you will 
find that, with hardly an exception, they have been not 
only men of native genius but equally men of developed 
power. The story of the long continued study of 
Demosthenes that he might perfect himself in his art is 
proverbial. Likewise Aeschines and the other masters 
of Athenian eloquence gave years of assiduous study in 
preparation for their art. So with Cicero, the greatest 
name in the palmy days of Roman eloquence. Among 
the moderns may be mentioned Burke, Fox, Sheridan, 
Lord Chatham, Pitt, Bolingbroke, Grattan, Curran; and 
in America, Clay, Calhoun, Webster, Phillips, Sumner, 
Seward, Everett, among parliamentary orators; while 
among preachers shine such names as Beecher, Spurgeon, 
Alexander Maclaren, Phillips Brooks, Bishop Simpson, 
and a host of others almost as great. These all " obtained 
a good report " through a combination of native genius 
and assiduous toil. They did not despise, they did not 
consider it wise to ignore, the principles of oratory as set 
forth in the books. All of them studied, some of them 
for years, the precepts of effective speech, and everything 
else that would help to success in making speeches them- 



Composition of an Oration 77 

selves. In other words, they supplemented their own 
natural aptitude by taking advantage of the wisdom and 
experience of others. If such men thought it worth their 
while to learn the art of oratory by study, surely no one 
can safely hope to be beyond the need of such study. 



CHAPTER X 

QUALITIES OF THE INTRODUCTION 
TN ESTIMATING the qualities that are particularly 
1 useful in developing the different parts of an oration, 
it is appropriate to consider, first, the features that are 
peculiarly appropriate to the introduction. 

I. The first thing to be said of the introduction is that 
it should possess the quality of brevity. The young writer 
and speaker always labors under the temptation to extend 
this part of his discourse beyond reasonable limits. 
Whether this fault is because of the fear that he will 
not find enough to say within the prescribed limit, or 
whether it is because he thinks he has so much to say, 
he is in danger of saying more than is necessary or useful 
in this part of his discourse. It must be remembered 
that an oration is a work of art and, like other works of 
art, it must possess the qualities of symmetry and pro- 
portion. Otherwise it can have no beauty and little 
power. The oration should not be a polywog — all head. 
It may, rather, be likened to a building. The introduc- 
tion is the front porch; the discussion, with its various 
divisions, constitutes the body of the house divided into 
its several rooms ; while the conclusion is the back porch. 
The length suitable for the introduction, in any given 

78 



Qualities of the Introduction 79 

case, will be properly determined by the dignity, nature, 
and proposed limits of the discourse as a whole. Let no 
one make the mistake of assuming in this part of his 
speech that he will " be heard because of his much 
speaking." Such an assumption would be fatal to suc- 
cess. In proportion to the entire speech, the introduction 
should be as brief as is consistent with perfect lucidity 
and with its prime purpose of preparing the audience to 
listen with intelligence, fairness, and interest to the pres- 
entation and amplification of the theme. The front porch 
should never be larger than the house itself. It should 
lead as directly, as easily and as charmingly as possible 
into the main body of the building. It is not made for 
its own sake, but for the sake of what is to follow. 

In harmony with this principle, it follows that the 
opening sentence of the introduction, that is of the whole 
speech, should be brief. Blair well says : " A first sen- 
tence should seldom be a long, and never an intricate one." 
As a rule, let this sentence be a simple, declarative, un- 
pretentious statement of a fact or a principle. If the 
idea is common, the statement of it should not be com- 
monplace. Triteness here may prove disastrous. His 
opening words give the speaker an opportunity to put 
himself on good terms with an audience and to convey 
to them the impression of his good sense, genial spirit, 
inherent manliness, and perhaps his mastery of the sit- 
uation and of whatever subject he may have to present. 
Let him not dissipate the opportunity by frivolousness. 
It is safe to assume that an audience is comparatively 



80 The Making of an Oration 

indifferent to both the speaker and his theme. It is not 
wise, therefore, to lay a heavy burden upon the attention 
or the understanding of one's hearers. A brief, modest 
opening sentence will give them little to do by way of 
grammatical interpretation, and will help gain their re- 
spect for the speaker's sincerity and good sense. 

2. The introduction should also possess the quality of 
simplicity. Good taste requires that this part of the 
discourse be neither too forcible, too figurative, or too 
highly illustrated. These qualities are always liable to 
seem bombastic, and of all places the semblance of bom- 
bast in the introduction is ridiculous and repulsive. Only 
when the circumstances are such that the interest of the 
audience in the subject is already aroused will very 
energetic or highly figurative language be an advantage. 
Attention has already been called to this principle in the 
discussion of the nature of the introduction, but further 
emphasis may well be laid upon it in this connection. 
When a previous speaker has presented the theme, so 
that it is already in some aspect in the minds of the 
hearers, or when the course of events has centered the 
thoughts of the people upon it, so that their interest is 
kindled and their feelings are excited, the speaker may 
appropriately in his introduction make use of more 
picturesque and more impassioned speech than would 
otherwise be permissible. In a way his theme is already 
introduced, and what would ordinarily be extravagant 
is now appropriate. 

Examples. ( i ) An interesting illustration of a simple 



Qualities of the Introduction 81 

yet figurative exordium is found in Webster's famous 
speech on the Foot Resolution, better known as " The 
Reply to Hayne " : 

Mr. President: When the mariner has been tossed for 
many days in thick weather, and on an unknown sea, he 
naturally avails himself of the first pause in storm, the earli- 
est glance of the sun, to take his latitude and ascertain how 
far the elements have driven him from his true course. Let 
us imitate this prudence, and before we float farther on the 
waves of this debate, refer to the point from which we de- 
parted, that we may at least be able to conjecture where we 
now are. I ask for the reading of the resolution. 

So he brought his hearers back to the point of de- 
parture, and especially to the point which he wished them 
to occupy. He chose his own question rather than let 
his antagonist choose it for him. The introduction might, 
v possibly, have seemed too figurative had it been pro- 
nounced under ordinary conditions ; but Webster did not 
pronounce it under ordinary conditions. When he arose, 
the debate had been in progress for days. Colonel 
Hayne, senator from South Carolina, had made a brilliant 
speech, characterized by all the fervid eloquence, grace of 
diction, and intensity of spirit peculiar to some of the 
southern orators of those days. The admirers of Hayne 
and the sympathizers with his cause were jubilant. They 
boasted that he had won a great victory and claimed that 
he could not be successfully answered. The friends 
of Webster and the Union, on the other hand, were 
depressed with anxiety, and feared that even the " God- 
like Daniel " might not prove equal to the task of 



82 The Making of an Oration 

adequately replying to the brilliant southerner. Public 
excitement was at white heat. The senate chamber was 
crowded; every nerve was tense; every whisper was 
hushed to silence ; every eye was fixed upon the speaker ; 
every ear strained to catch the first swelling note of that 
mighty organ voice. In a word, the conditions under 
which he spoke were such that no metaphor, no illustra- 
tion, no amount of energy would have seemed extrava- 
gant, if, indeed, it could equal the demands of the occa- 
sion. Thus, good taste not only allowed but required 
such an introduction in order to satisfy the excited feel- 
ings of the audience. The analogy, moreover, that he 
used was so fitting, so illuminating, so beautiful and yet 
so sincere, that at once there must have come a feeling 
of confidence in the thought that the speaker was master 
of the situation. 

(2) Compare with this glowing exordium the introduc- 
tory sentences of Webster's masterpiece as a dedicatory 
orator, delivered at the laying of the corner stone of the 
Bunker Hill monument : 

This uncounted multitude before me and around me 
proves the feeling which the occasion has excited. These 
thousands of human faces, glowing with sympathy and joy, 
and from the impulses of a common gratitude turned rever- 
ently to Heaven in this spacious temple of the firmament, 
proclaim that the day, the place, and the purpose of our 
assembling have made a deep impression on our hearts. 

Less picturesque, less figurative, less passionate than 
the preceding example, but straightforward, dignified, 



Qualities of the Introduction 83 

and calm, these introductory words were, likewise, in per- 
fect harmony with the occasion on which they were 
uttered. The multitudes to whom they were spoken were 
not, as on the other occasion, quivering with the passions 
excited by a sectional debate ; they were rather assembled 
to commemorate a great event in our history and to do 
honor to those who had offered their lives as a sacrifice 
to liberty. Consequently, the great orator's opening sen- 
tences were simple and unimpassioned. 

In harmony with the demand for simplicity, good taste 
forbids the use of exclamations, rhetorical interrogations, 
apostrophe and other striking figures in opening sentences. 
Such expressions at the outset give too great a shock to 
the hearers. They jar on the nerves. A premature 
explosion is never pleasant and may be dangerous. Dyna- 
mite in a speech is a good thing, someone has wisely 
remarked, but dynamite in the wrong place and set off at 
the wrong time is a dangerous plaything. It may blow 
into pieces him that applies the torch and at the same 
time destroy the spectators. 

3. Another quality that should characterize the intro- 
duction is that of being interesting. Winning an audience 
is, in some respects, like fishing for trout. One must 
" get a rise " at the first cast of the fly, or he may find 
it difficult to get any rise at all in that place. Hearers 
are exceedingly wary, and he that would " put his hook 
in their nose " must present them an attractive lure. 
That lure is the introduction. The speaker must aim, 
therefore, to make this part of his speech above all things 



84 The Making of an Oration 

interesting and attractive. By charm of manner, by felic- 
ity of phrase, by earnestness of spirit, by aptness and 
appropriateness of thought — by every honest means, let 
him seek at the outset to win the attention, the respect, 
the confidence, the sympathy, the favor of the audience. 
If he succeed in this attempt, the victory is half won. 
Thenceforward he can march straight onward to his goal. 
4. In its method the introduction should be direct and 
conciliatory. To be direct is not always difficult, but to 
be at the same time conciliatory is sometimes a task. One 
may be altogether opposed to the opinions of most of his 
audience, or he may know that they are opposed to him 
and his opinions. To secure their courteous attention 
under such conditions without sacrificing in any measure 
one's own convictions or changing one's own attitude re- 
quires all the tact and good judgment of which the 
speaker is possessed. This is peculiarly true when the 
speaker has not only convictions but also strong feeling 
with reference to the matter in hand. The Apostle Paul 
exhibited rare skill in introducing his famous speech on 
Mars Hill at Athens. He wished to preach not only a 
new faith but a faith that was diametrically opposed in 
its fundamental tenets to the religious system of those to 
whom he proclaimed it. His feelings were profoundly 
excited at what he saw. On every hand, wherever he 
turned his eyes, he beheld monuments and shrines, tem- 
ples and altars, erected in honor of heathen deities. 
Luke's account in the " Acts of the Apostles " informs 
us that " his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the 



Qualities of the Introduction 85 

city wholly given to idolatry." Had the hot-headed, im- 
pulsive, belligerent Peter been the speaker, he would 
probably have burst forth in a flame of denunciation. But 
Paul had better judgment than that. Although he was 
stirred in spirit, he wanted a hearing. Therefore, instead 
of denouncing, he conciliated. The King James version 
is not a good rendering of the passage. The apostle did 
not say : " Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things 
ye are too superstitious." Such an introduction would 
have given offense and have defeated his purpose. He 
rather said in substance : " I perceive that in all things 
ye are much given to religious matters. For as I passed 
along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found 
also an altar with this inscription, to an unknown god. 
What therefore ye worship without knowing, that de- 
clare I unto you." Thus he approached them on their 
own ground and by so doing secured an opportunity to 
proclaim his doctrine of one God as distinguished from 
the Greek polytheism. Further along in the same ad- 
dress, he exemplified the same rhetorical skill, when he 
appealed to one of their own poets as furnishing a basis 
for his proclamation of the idea of the brotherhood of 
man. 



CHAPTER XI 

THOUGHT AND STYLE OF THE CONCLUSION 

THE general nature of the conclusion and its relations 
to the other parts of the speech have already been 
considered. It remains to call attention to some of the 
more distinctly rhetorical qualities that distinguish this 
part of the oration. 

The conclusion is at once the easiest and the most diffi- 
cult part to compose of the whole work. Rhetorically, it 
is that for which all the rest of the speech is composed. 
A failure here is a failure wholly; for in the conclusion 
are focused and applied all the elements of thought, ar- 
gument, feeling, imagination, intensity of conviction, and 
force of presentation of all that has preceded. In all par- 
ticulars of thought as well as of style, it is the outcome 
and fruitage of all that has gone before. Like the column 
of water that leaps from the nozzle of the pipe in hy- 
draulic mining, plunging with terrific force into the 
mountain side, washing out soil, gravel, and solid rocks, 
and tearing the everlasting hills from their foundations 
in order to free the gold from its secret places for the use 
of man, so is the conclusion to the oration. The column 
of water has power because it has behind it all the super- 
incumbent weight of the lake high up in the mountains, 

86 



Thought and Style of the Conclusion 87 

and all the impetus of the rush through the flume clown 
the declivity, there to be narrowed and condensed into 
that single stream forced against the hillside with the 
velocity of a cannon ball to do the work of a hundred 
men. So the conclusion has power, because it has be- 
hind it the weight and velocity of all that precedes. Here 
is where the gold of decision is to be uncovered in the 
hard and, sometimes, stubborn wills of the hearers. Here 
is where, preeminently, the application of the subject is 
made. 

i. Just what the form and style of the conclusion 
should be will depend, largely, upon the type of the 
speech as a whole. If the oration be mainly intellectual 
in its nature — for example, an argument before a bench 
of judges, or a serious address before a lyceum — the 
conclusion may consist of a summary of the arguments 
presented, with an application of the truth established to 
a single action or to a course of action. 

An illustration of such a summary and application is 
furnished in the conclusion of Ruskin's lecture on " Con- 
ventional Art " : 

Make, then, your choice, boldly and consciously, for one 
way or another it must be made. On the dark and danger- 
ous side are set the pride which delights in self -contempla- 
tion, the indolence which rests in unquestioned forms, the 
ignorance that despises what is fairest among God's crea- 
tures, and the dullness that denies what is marvelous in his 
working. There is a life of monotony for your souls, and 
of misguiding for those of others. And, on the other side, 
is open to your choice the life of the crowned spirit, moving 



88 The Making of an Oration 

as a light in creation, discovering always, illuminating 
always, gaining every hour in strength, yet bowed down every 
hour into deeper humility; sure of being right in its aim, 
sure of being irresistible in its progress; happy in what it 
has securely done; happier in what, day by day, it may 
serenely hope; happiest at the close of life, when the right 
hand begins to forget its cunning, to remember that there 
never was a touch of the chisel or the pencil it wielded but 
has added to the knowledge and quickened the happiness of 
mankind. 

2. The conclusion may sometimes consist of the closing 
argument of the discussion, expanded, intensified, and 
applied as the climax and crown, both in thought and 
style, of the entire discourse. For the intellectual type 
of oratory, no more effective method than this can be 
found. In this form of conclusion, the speech, as it 
approaches the close, sweeps onward with constantly 
accelerating speed and augmented power, gathering 
weight and momentum as it proceeds, concentrating, as 
it were, into its closing paragraph all the thought, reason- 
ing, and conviction of the whole discourse, thus making 
of that paragraph the most impressive part of all. Thus 
it seems to be, indeed, " logic set on fire," blazing and 
blistering its way through the reason to the wills of men. 
This kind of conclusion, while less formal, has also the 
advantage of being more natural than a recapitulation. 
It impresses one as the normal outgrowth and climax of 
the whole discourse. 

3. In the more impassioned types of oratory, the 
conclusion properly partakes of the style pertaining to 



Thought and Style of the Conclusion 89 

the entire production; except that it is more intense, 
more elevated, more nearly akin to poetry than the main 
body of the speech. By the time he comes to this part 
of his address, if ever, the speaker has succeeded in 
bringing his hearers into full sympathy with his own 
thought and emotion. All their powers are in harmony 
with him, and, like the chords of a harp, quiver in re- 
sponse to his every touch. Like one of the old min- 
strels, he plays upon the whole gamut of their souls and 
brings forth what music he will. 

4. Because he has, presumably, won the understanding, 
interest, and sympathy of his audience, the speaker may 
appropriately use in the conclusion longer and more 
complex sentences than would be advisable in the open- 
ing of a speech. His hearers will then have less difficulty 
in understanding him, less hesitation in following him, 
less objection to acceptance of his reasoning. They have 
been led, step by step, to follow his logic until his judg- 
ment with reference to the object to be sought has 
become their judgment, and the fires that burn in his 
heart have been likewise kindled in their hearts. They 
have the momentum of all that has gone before to carry 
them triumphantly through. 

Naturally, also, this part of the discourse will be more 
full of force and fire than would be pleasing in the intro- 
duction. When he reaches the conclusion, the speakers 
aim is to drive home the truth he has been presenting 
in such a way that his hearers will be moved to adopt 
that truth as a motive to action. It is the place for what 



90 The Making of an Oration 

the older preachers termed "the rousements." Conse- 
quently there is room for the loftiest flights of the 
imagination, for the boldest figures of speech, for the 
most brilliant illustrations, for the expression of the 
noblest aspirations, for the most impassioned appeals. 
Here, if ever, the orator may pull out every stop and 
pour forth, without restraint, the music of his soul. 

Examples. — (i) One of the best illustrations, known 
to every American schoolboy, of the impassioned con- 
clusion, in the form of aspiration or the expression of a 
wish, is the magnificent peroration of Webster's justly 
famous "Reply to Hayne." It would be hard to find, 
at least outside of pulpit oratory, a more splendid burst 
of eloquence in any language : 

I have not allowed myself, sir, to look beyond the Union, 
to see what might be hidden in the dark recess beyond. 
* * * While the Union lasts, we have high, exciting, 
gratifying prospects spread out before us, for us and our 
children. Beyond that I seek not to penetrate the veil. God 
grant that, in my day at least, that curtain may not rise! 
God grant that on my vision never may be opened what lies 
behind! When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the 
last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on 
the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious 
Union; on states dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a 
land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fra- 
ternal blood! Let their last feeble and lingering glance 
rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the Republic, now 
known and honored throughout the earth, still full high ad- 
vanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original 
luster, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star 



Thought and Style of the Conclusion 91 

obscured, bearing for its motto no such miserable interroga- 
tory as " What is all this worth? " nor those other words of 
delusion and folly, " Liberty first and Union afterwards " ; 
but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living 
light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the 
sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole 
heaven, that other sentiment, dear to every true American 
heart, " Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and 
inseparable ! " 

(2) The following, from Sumner's speech on " The 
Crime Against Kansas," is well worthy of study as an 
illustration of the impassioned conclusion that takes the 
form of an appeal: 

The contest, which, beginning in Kansas, has reached us, 
will soon be transferred from congress to a broader stage, 
where every citizen will be not only spectator, but actor; 
and to their judgment I confidently appeal. To the People, 
now on the eve of exercising the electoral franchise, in 
choosing a chief magistrate of the Republic, I appeal, to 
vindicate the electoral franchise in Kansas. Let the ballot 
box of the Union, with multitudinous might, protect the 
ballot box in that territory. Let the voters everywhere, 
while rejoicing in their own rights, help to guard the equal 
rights of equal fellow citizens; that the shrines of popular 
institutions, now desecrated, may be sanctified anew; that 
the ballot box, now plundered, may be restored ; that the cry, 
" I am an American citizen," may not be sent forth in vain 
against outrage of every kind. In just regard for free labor 
in that territory, which it is sought to blast by unwelcome 
association with slave labor ; in Christian sympathy with the 
slave, whom it is proposed to task and sell there; in stern 
condemnation of the crime which has been consummated on 
that beautiful soil; in rescue of fellow-citizens now subjected 



92 The Making of an Oration 

to a tyrannical usurpation; in dutiful respect to the early 
fathers whose aspirations are now ignobly thwarted; in the 
name of the Constitution, which has been outraged, of the 
laws trampled down, of justice banished, of humanity de- 
graded, of peace destroyed, of freedom crushed to earth; 
and in the name of the Heavenly Father, whose service is 
perfect freedom, I make this last appeal. 

(3) A famous example of the impassioned conclusion 
is found in Burke's opening speech at the trial of Warren 
Hastings. The concluding sentences furnish a fine 
example of the impassioned climax: 

I impeach Warren Hastings, Esquire, of high crimes and 
misdemeanors. I impeach him in the name of the Commons 
of Great Britain, in Parliament assembled, whose parlia- 
mentary trust he has betrayed. I impeach him in the name 
of all the Commons of Great Britain, whose national char- 
acter he has dishonored. I impeach him in the name of the 
people of India, whose laws, rights, and liberties he has sub- 
verted, whose property he has destroyed, whose country he 
has laid waste and desolate. I impeach him in the name and 
by virtue of those eternal laws of justice which he has vio- 
lated. I impeach him in the name of human nature itself, 
which he has cruelly outraged, injured, and oppressed, in 
both sexes, in every age, rank, situation, and condition of 
life. 

(4) A frequent and important type of the impassioned 
conclusion takes the form of prophecy or vision. A 
modern illustration of this type is chosen from a speech 
delivered in the national house of representatives by 
Hon. Frank H. Hurd, on " A Tariff for Revenue Only " : 



Thought and Style of the Conclusion 93 

With the opportunity of unrestricted exchange of these 
products, how limitless the horizon of our possibilities ! Let 
American adventurousness and genius be free, upon the high 
seas, to go wherever they please and bring back whatever 
they please, and the oceans will swarm with American sails, 
and the land will laugh with the plenty within its borders. 
The commerce of the Venetian Republic, the wealth-pro- 
ducing traffic of the Netherlands, will be as dreams in 
contrast with the stupendous reality which American enter- 
prise will develop in our own generation. Through the 
humanizing influence of the trade thus encouraged, I see 
nations become the friends of nations, and the causes of war 
disappear. I see the influence of the great republic in the 
amelioration of the condition of the poor and the oppressed 
in every land, and in the moderation of the arbitrariness of 
power. Upon the wings of free trade will be carried the 
seeds of free government, to be scattered everywhere to 
grow and ripen into harvests of free peoples in every nation 
under the sun. 

The conclusion of William Jennings Bryan's famous 
" Cross of Gold " speech contains at once the qualities 
of argument, vision, and appeal, presented with such 
impassioned eloquence as to arouse in the convention to 
which it was spoken a frenzy of enthusiasm and at the 
same time secure for the political " platform " which it 
advocated the support of that convention and for the 
speaker, himself, the nomination for the presidency: 

This nation is able to legislate for its own people on every 
question, without waiting for the aid or consent of any other 
nation on earth ; and upon that issue we expect to carry every 
State in the Union. I shall not slander the fair State of 
Massachusetts nor the inhabitants of the State of New York 



94 The Making of an Oration 

by saying that, when they are confronted with the proposi- 
tion, they will declare that this nation is not able to attend 
to its own business. It is the issue of 1776 over again. Our 
ancestors, when but three millions in number, had the cour- 
age to declare their political independence of every other 
nation; shall we, their descendants, when we have grown to 
seventy millions, declare that we are less independent than 
our forefathers? No, my friends, that will never be the 
verdict of our people. Therefore, we care not upon what 
lines the battle is fought. If they say bimetallism is good, 
but that we cannot have it until other nations help us, we 
reply that instead of having a gold standard because England 
has, we will restore bimetallism, and then let England have 
bimetallism because the United States has. If they dare to 
come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as 
a good thing, we will fight them to the uttermost. Having 
behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, 
supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests, 
and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for 
a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press 
down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall 
not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold. 

The preceding examples will serve to illustrate some 
of the qualities of style that belong to oratory of the 
noblest type. 



CHAPTER XII 

GENERAL QUALITIES OF ORATORICAL 
STYLE 

HAVING thus noted some of the qualities of style 
that are especially appropriate to the introduction 
and the conclusion, it now remains to consider some of 
the qualities of oratory as a whole. For, while there 
are certain characteristics that peculiarly pertain to the 
opening and closing portions, there are likewise qualities 
that belong to this type of discourse in all its parts. 
These qualities are necessitated by the nature of the art 
itself. 

It must be remembered that oratory is popular dis- 
course. It is preeminently to and for the people. In its 
highest and best sense, it is not for any exclusive grade of 
culture and condition in life. It is, rather, adapted to 
the understanding, tastes, motives, and interests of the 
great mass of men who, in their general average of 
intelligence, training, passions, and purposes are termed 
" the people." It is to such an audience, made up of men 
of both high and low degree, of men swayed by sudden 
impulses or long cherished prejudices, by likes and dis- 
likes, by hopes and fears, by ambitions, selfishness, large- 

95 



96 The Making of an Oration 

heartedness, and meannesses, and all the mighty and 
seemingly self-contradictory motives that make up what 
we call human nature, but nevertheless an underlying 
basis of fairness and a substructure of common sense, — 
it is to an audience made up of such men that the orator 
must address himself and his speech. 

Since oratory is popular discourse, it must possess 
those characteristics that fit it to the populace. These 
characteristics have to do with the three elements of 
thought, structure, and expression. 

I. In the first place, then, the thought and the expres- 
sion of the thought must be adapted to the popular mind. 
This does not mean that an audience must agree with 
the speaker at the outset. Indeed, the presumption is 
that the contrary is true. If there were such agree- 
ment there would be little need for speaking. Oratory 
is persuasion, and, if all agree, persuasion is not always 
called for by circumstances. Some of the greatest 
triumphs of oratory have been won over hostile audi- 
ences; as witness the speeches of Henry Ward Beecher 
in England during the Civil War and those of Alexander 
Hamilton in the long struggle over the question whether 
New York would adopt the Constitution of the United 
States, by which he changed a very large majority against 
adoption to a majority in its favor. What is meant, 
rather, is that the thought should be presented in so 
plain, so direct, so simple a manner, and must show that 
the details of each idea have such an obvious bearing 
upon the main question, that its significance and appro- 



General Qualities of Style 97 

priateness will be grasped at once by the average 
mind. 

This demand precludes complex lines of thought and 
especially long, intricate, and involved sentences, that can 
hardly be understood when they are examined by a 
reader much less when they must be grasped by a hearer 
who must be carried along with the speaker, if carried 
at all, with no time or opportunity to examine them at 
leisure. 

The best arguments for the orator, then, are those in 
which the conclusion is reached from the premises 
directly with no important and distracting discussions 
between. Arguments from example and analogy are 
especially valuable for the uses of public speech. When 
the speaker can point to one situation or idea or truth 
that may be new or not easily understood as, in its rela- 
tions, like something else that is familiar, he goes far 
toward making that for which he is pleading not only 
clear but forcible. He must be careful that the analogy 
be a true one, so that neither he nor his audience be mis- 
led by an apparently similar but actually unlike relation. 

Since the oration is for oral delivery, rather than for 
leisurely reading, and must produce its designed effect 
by a single utterance, both its thought and language must 
proceed on broad and general lines. The style and the 
thought are one. The arguments advanced should usually 
be the main divisions of the discussion, explained, ampli- 
fied, exemplified, illustrated, vivified, and enforced with 
all the earnestness and eloquence of which the speaker 



98 The Making of an Oration 

is possessed. This much the hearers will grasp, and it 
will, likewise, grasp them. More than this is vanity. A 
multiplicity of detail is both confusing and wearisome. 
The only way in which a speaker who indulges in great 
minutiae of thought will move an audience, will be to 
move it toward the door. Aristotle (Rhet., Book I, Ch. 
2) says: "Your hearer is supposed to be a man of 
merely ordinary understanding," and for that reason 
will not be won by intricate reasonings. Lord Ches- 
terfield, somewhat cynically, expressed the same reason 
for the principle. " The receipt to make a speaker," he 
writes in one of his letters, " and an applauded one too, 
is short and easy. Take common sense, quantum sufficet; 
add a little application to the rules and orders of the 
House ; throw obvious thoughts in a new light, and make 
up the whole with a large quantity of purity, correctness, 
and elegance of style. Take it for granted that by far 
the greatest part of mankind neither analyze nor search 
to the bottom; they are incapable of penetrating deeper 
than the surface." As the speech is made not for excep- 
tional, but for average hearers, the speaker will be wise, 
therefore, who proceeds on broad and general lines, so 
as not to lay upon those hearers the burden of " pene- 
trating deeper than the surface." 

An oration is a picture. It is an oral reproduction 
and representation of the visions that stir the speaker's 
own soul. The artist, when he paints a landscape, does 
not try to portray upon the canvas every blade of grass 
and every leaf of the tree. Are we, therefore, to assume 



General Qualities of Style 99 

that the artist does not faithfully depict the grass and 
the trees? Does he not, indeed, more truly represent 
the landscape by omitting confusing details and painting 
those large and general objects to which he desires to 
call especial attention, while all the rest are made sub- 
ordinate to serve as background? In other words, does 
the observer see the individual leaves, when he looks at 
the tree ? It is not art to paint a forest so that one " can- 
not see the woods because of the trees." The same 
principle that controls the painter governs the orator — 
governs him, too, in the choice of the thoughts he shall 
advance as well as in the language with which he 
shall clothe those thoughts. He chooses some great, 
ruling idea, as his theme, and then sets forth some impor- 
tant truths, pulsing with the crimson blood of that theme 
— which truths, taken together, serve to center the atten- 
tion upon that ruling idea, establish its truth, and give 
it power. 

2. From the nature of its thought and its underlying 
purpose, it follows that the oration should be simple in 
structure. The orator aims to accomplish one thing and 
one thing only: to gain the assent and cooperation of 
his hearers with regard to his " object." That " object " 
is the focus to which everything centers and from which 
everything radiates. Whatever does not conduce to that 
one end is, for him, irrelevant. Every division of the 
discourse, therefore, must have a direct, unmistakable, 
intimate bearing upon the main question. A single prin- 
ciple runs through them all and tests their oratorical 



100 The Making of an Oration 

value; consequently, in structure as in language and 
thought, everything makes for simplicity and unity. 

3. In expression, oratory, in common with other forms 
of discourse, must exemplify the three great qualities of 
style — clearness, energy, and beauty. If any difference 
is to be recognized, it is that oratory, more than any 
other form of literature, is dependent upon the first two 
of these qualities. As oratory is popular in its aims and 
consequently in its processes, it must be understood by 
the average audience in a single utterance. It is not 
for dreaming metaphysicians, speculating on the ques- 
tion, " whether a chimera ruminating in a vacuum 
devoureth second intention," and other equally etherial 
abstractions; it is for plain, every-day men of average 
intelligence and culture. Neither is it for the leisurely 
study and meditation of those who read the printed 
page ; it is rather for the understanding and appreciation 
of those that must receive their full impression at a 
momentary glance as the orator marches by to his goal. 
The public speaker must, therefore, be on his guard, 
lest while laboring to be profound he become turbid 
and find himself floundering in the muddy waters of 
scholastic language, the meaning of whose sesquipe- 
dalian words and centipedal sentences no man can 
fathom. Dr. Austin Phelps, in his book on " English 
Style in Public Discourse," quotes a sentence from an 
essay of George Brimley, formerly librarian of Trinity 
College, Cambridge, which will illustrate this fault. 
" Brimley is discoursing," says Dr. Phelps, " upon the 



General Qualities of Style 101 

nature of poetry, and he soliloquizes thus : ' A poetical 
view of the universe is an exhaustive view of all 
phenomena, as individual phenomenal wholes, of ascend- 
ing orders of complexity, whose earliest stage is the 
organization of single coexisting phenomena into con- 
crete individuals, and its apotheosis the marvelous picture 
of the infinite life, no longer conceived as the oceanic 
pulsation which the understanding called cause and 
effect.' " Clear as mud ! Surely this tangled jargon illus- 
trates in an " ascending order of complexity " one of the 
phenomena of expression which a presumably rational 
mind will sometimes display, when it allows itself to con- 
found incomprehensibleness with profundity. If this 
sentence mean anything in particular, it is safe to say 
that its meaning is safely concealed from everyone but 
its author by the jungle of words in which he has so 
adroitly hidden it. Now if such learned obscurity is 
inexcusable in the essay, how much more is it inexcusable 
in the speech ! The orator may be ever so scholarly, but 
let him never be scholastic. True learning and exhaustive 
thought on his part are desirable; pedantic affectation 
of learning and of thought strutting under the mask of 
big words and turgid phrases is execrable. The orator 
must deliver his soul in one utterance. Therefore, let 
him speak so clearly, so directly, so unequivocally that 
his hearers cannot mistake his meaning if they would. 
How else can he accomplish his purpose? How else can 
he arouse their attention, quicken their interest, convince 
their intellects, stir their sensibilities, gain their adher- 



102 The Making of an Oration 

ence? In a word, how else shall he make his speech 
successful ? 

(a) meaning and methods of clearness 

If we were called upon to state one maxim that more, 
perhaps, than any other expresses the secret of success 
in oratorical composition, we could hardly do better than 
say, " Make yourself understood." 

In oratory, preeminently, must be exemplified the pre- 
cept of the Latin rhetorician, Quintilian : " Non ut intel- 
legere possit, sed ne omnino possit non intellegere, curan- 
dum" ; that is, the speaker must take care not simply 
that it may be possible to understand him, but that it 
be absolutely impossible to misunderstand him. We are 
not speaking now, of course, from the pessimistic stand- 
point of those who agree with Talleyrand, that language 
is a device for concealing thought. It may be conceded 
that the politician may have occasion, now and then, to 
speak in "glittering generalities," which seem to be the 
last utterance of concentrated wisdom, but which in 
reality may mean anything in general or nothing in par- 
ticular; or to utter high-sounding phrases, that appear 
to express very definite ideas, but that, on analysis, are 
found to apply equally well to notions wholly antago- 
nistic in meaning. We are speaking, rather, from the 
standpoint of those who have positive opinions and are 
sincerely desirous of expressing those opinions. Such 
men would speak without prevarication or intentional 



General Qualities of Style 103 

ambiguity. Consequently they must seek, first of all, the 
great quality of clearness. 

(i) Clearness of style manifests itself in two direc- 
tions: In the first place, the speaker, to be effective, 
must fit his expression to his thought. This element of 
clearness is called precision. The speech should be a 
perfect mirror of the orator's ideas, reflecting precisely 
what he means — no more, no less, no other. So should 
he brood over his choice of words; so should he shape 
and mold his sentences, until both words and sentence 
structure bend so to his thought that they cannot fairly 
be interpreted in any way different from that intended. 

In the second place, the speaker, to be effective, must 
fit the expression of his thought to his audience. That 
is, he must not only say what he means, but he must 
make his hearers know what he means. This element of 
clearness is called perspicuity. It is possible to be faith- 
ful to the thought and still not be understood. The 
speaker has, therefore, a twofold problem to solve. He 
must say what he means, and he must make his hearers 
know what he means. To accomplish both purposes is 
not always so easy. He should make his style so simple 
and transparent that his language may be a perfect 
vehicle for his sentiment, to convey that sentiment to the 
minds and hearts of others. There is a lake in Michigan 
whose waters are so clear that a boat resting on its sur- 
face seems to be poised like a bird in the air, while 
fishes and pebbles can be plainly seen upon the bottom 
fifty feet below. Like that lake, glowing like a jewel on 



104 The Making of an Oration 

the bosom of earth, should be the language of the orator, 
so limpid as to attract no attention to itself, but serving 
simply as a medium in which his thought floats, without 
obstruction, before the mental vision of the hearer. 

" But," someone may argue, " it is well enough to 
say to the orator, ' Be precise/ and ' Be perspicuous,' 
but how shall he fulfill the demand? What are the 
conditions ? " 

In response to this challenge, it may be said in general, 
that clear speaking necessitates clear thinking. It is a 
fundamental truth that " No man can say plainly what 
he has not first thought plainly." If his language is hazy, 
probably his thought is foggy. On the other hand, he 
who has thought through his subject from beginning to 
end will be pretty likely to speak of that subject, when 
the time comes, with accuracy and in such a way as 
to make himself understood. He will march confidently 
and directly through the mazes of utterance because his 
mind has first explored the course and blazed the way. 

The first question, then, that the speaker should ask 
himself, in aiming for clearness in this twofold aspect, 
is this : " What is my thought ? " not, " What is nearly 
my thought ? " not, " What is approximately my idea ? " 
not, " What will do ? " but, " Precisely what is my 
thought?" Anything short of this is inadequate. Not 
until this question is answered is the speaker pre- 
pared to discuss his subject luminously and, therefore, 
effectively. 

After he has settled this matter satisfactorily, the 



General Qualities of Style 105 

speaker is ready to put to himself the second question of 
his oratorical catechism; namely, "Does this precisely 
express my thought? " In finding an affirmative answer 
to this question he will illustrate a twofold process — 
the process of choosing words that shall exactly fit his 
idea, and the process of constructing sentences that shall 
exactly express that idea. 

The former of these processes may necessitate a long 
and perhaps painful search — a browsing, it may be, 
through the dry pastures of lists of synonyms, or a 
dragging of the net through the deep sea of ponderous 
dictionaries. But let not the explorer give* over his search 
or withhold his hand till he has exhausted the resources 
of the language to find the one word that alone will fit 
his thought. The word is there; let him fish till he 
catch it. 

The latter process, that of clear sentence structure, 
may necessitate a casting and recasting, a modeling and 
remodeling, a turning upside down and inside out, of his 
sentences, before they are so shaped as most lucidly to 
express his thought. This may seem a slow process, but 
the end in this case justifies the means — indeed demands 
the means — the means themselves as well as the end 
are of value. Such painful toil is the price of excellence. 
Edmund Burke, it is said, rewrote some of his speeches 
no less than fifty times before they took the form in 
which he was willing that they should finally rest as the 
perfect expression of his thought. Thus through the 
long agony of persistent toil he endured the penalty that 



106 The Making of an Oration 

must be paid if he would make of his works the noblest 
body of political philosophy in all the world, and at the 
same time carve his own name high in the temple of 
fame. The importance of care in the construction of 
sentences on the part of the speaker will be discussed 
more in detail in another place; just now the problem 
has to do with the choice of words, as an element of 
clearness, rather than specifically with the structure of 
sentences. 

The importance of care in the choice of words can- 
not be too strongly insisted upon. Without such care 
precision is out of the question. Ours is a composite 
vocabulary. It would seem as if the sons of men, that 
were scattered abroad " upon the face of all the earth " 
by the confusion at Babel, must have met in convention 
on the shores of Britain and, each contributing his own 
speech, had formed the English language. And when, 
on the Day of Pentecost, " Parthians, and Medes, and 
Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, 
and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia, Phrygia, and 
Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Lybia about 
Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, 
Cretes and Arabians " heard " every man in his own 
tongue, wherein he was born," one can almost believe 
that the apostles secured that marvelous result simply 
by speaking English. Our language derives its wealth 
and power from a multiplicity of sources. In addition 
to its deep soil of Saxon words, its vocabulary is enriched 
by multitudes of derivations from the Latin and Greek, 



General Qualities of Style 107 

from Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Ethiopian, Russian, 
North American Indian, French, Italian, Spanish, Ger- 
man, Danish, Scandinavian, Chinese, Japanese, and 
many other tongues. Consequently our language is ex- 
ceedingly rich in synonyms. We have many terms nearly 
alike in sense, yet with slightly different shades of mean- 
ing. Accurate command of the language requires careful 
study of such words in their derivation, history, and 
their use by standard authors. Precision in the use of 
language demands that there be no confusion of synonyms. 

To illustrate : suppose we wish to express some quality 
of soundness. Shall we say that the thing is " sound," 
"perfect," "firm," "strong," "safe," "healthy," "se- 
cure," "trustworthy," "dependable," "reliable," "hon- 
orable," " honest," " orthodox," " legal," " valid," 
" thorough," or " complete " ? There is one word and 
only one that precisely fits the case. Until that one 
word is found the task is not ended. 

Want of precision is not infrequently due to the inac- 
curate choice of words that indicate a condition for those 
that tend to produce that condition. For instance, when 
the reformer proclaims very loudly and very persistently 
that cigarettes are " unhealthy," he probably means that 
smoking them is unhealthful. The cigarettes themselves 
may be in perfect health. 

Great care should, also, be exercised in avoiding 
expressions peculiar to one district but not recognized 
as good English wherever the language is spoken. We 
Americans are frequent offenders in this particular. For 



108 The Making of an Oration 

example, the word " clever," as used by the best writers, 
signifies " skillful," " sagacious," " adroit." On this side 
of the Atlantic, however, it is frequently used as syn- 
onymous with " good-natured," " generous," " accom- 
modating." Thus, one may speak of his friend as an 
exceeding "clever fellow," when all he means is simply 
that his friend is liberal with his possessions. Another 
common and gross illustration of provincialism is found 
in the expression, " Where are we at? " This is so 
atrocious, that it would hardly seem worth mentioning 
here, were it not for the fact that a presumably expe- 
rienced speaker in the national house of representatives, 
a few years ago, attracted much attention to himself by 
using the phrase. A somewhat analogous provincialism 
is one often heard in a large section of the United States. 
This is the misuse of certain adverbs of place after the 
verb " want," without the corresponding infinitive be- 
tween. Thus we hear " Do you want in ? " " Do you 
want out?" ("on," "off," "up," "down"), and so on 
to the end of the list — for " Do you want to come in ? " 
" go out? " " get on? " and the like. Students who have 
always lived in that part of the country where these 
expressions are common, often find difficulty in realizing 
that the expressions are not good English. How the pro- 
vincialism crept into the speech is uncertain, although it 
may have come from the German with whose idiom it 
precisely harmonizes. 

It is not necessary here to discuss at length the value 
to the speaker who would accurately express his thought 



General Qualities of Style 109 

of a critical study of the meaning of words. The few 
illustrations above given sufficiently show that such study 
has supreme value. Dr. Austin Phelps thus emphasizes 
the importance of this patient groping for the right word. 
" Do we not," he asks, " often fret for the right word, 
which is just outside the closed door of memory? We 
know that there is such a word ; we know that it is pre- 
cisely the word we want; no other can fill its place; we 
saw it mentally a short half hour ago; but we beat the 
air for it now. The power we crave is the power to store 
words within reach, and hold them in mental reserve 
till they are wanted, and then restore them by the mental 
vibration of a thought. Nothing can give it to us but 
study and use of the language in long continued and 
critical practice." Again he says : " By such studies, 
when combined with scholarly use of language of a 
laborious profession, a man masters words singly, words 
in combinations, words in varieties of sense, words in 
figurative uses, and those forms of expression which 
always lie latent in original uses of one's mother tongue/' 
Precision of style depends in no small measure upon 
the position of words and phrases. In an uninflected 
language like ours, the form of words is nothing; place 
is everything. This is peculiarly true of modifying 
expressions. Though seemingly not very important in 
themselves, a wrong position of one of these modifiers 
may render the meaning doubtful or even impart an 
unintentional meaning to an entire sentence. This law 
applies both to words and to collections of words. 



110 The Making of an Oration 

Especially open to the danger of ambiguity are the 
words " also " and "only." In the line from Milton's 
sonnet on his blindness, " They also serve who only stand 
and wait," there is not precision, although one clause 
helps explain the other. The saying is so familiar that 
we rarely question its meaning, and of course some 
allowance must be made for the exigencies of poetry. 
Does the former clause mean, " They as well as others 
serve," or " They serve as well as perform some other 
act " ? In the latter clause, is the meaning, " Who are 
the only ones that stand and wait," or " Who stand and 
wait, but do nothing else " ? 

Equal care needs to be exercised in the use of phrases 
and clauses. When the young lawyer says, " I hear the 
assertion that my client should be fined with contempt," 
he evidently says what he does not mean. When the 
political orator proclaims that " the state should build a 
monument to every one of its dead soldiers made of 
shining brass or solid granite," he is not so complimentary 
as he intends to be. 

Want of precision is due more frequently, perhaps, to 
the ambiguous employment of personal pronouns than 
to any other single cause. A distinguished English 
lecturer said : " He was careful to speak of everyone 
with due reverence for their position." Mrs. Gaskill 
writes: "Each of the girls went up into their separate 
rooms to rest and calm themselves"; and even Addison 
has this sentence: "Each of the sexes should keep 
within its proper bounds, and content themselves to exult 



General Qualities of Style 111 

within their respective districts." If such blunders can 
be made by the writer, how much more liable to commit 
them must be the speaker, and, consequently, how much 
more need has he of exercising that " eternal vigilance " 
which is the price of freedom from such errors ! Certain 
hastily edited newspapers are peculiarly susceptible to 
such faults. Even independent sentences may some- 
times be placed in such close relations to each other as 
to convey meanings altogether different from those 
intended by the writers. For illustration, a rural editor 
in giving an account of a religious convention got his 
description of the church building and the proceedings 
somewhat mixed when he wrote : " The convention was 
held in the beautiful audience room of the new Baptist 
church; and the opening sermon was preached by the 
Rev. Ebenezer White. It was eighty feet long and sixty- 
four wide, tinted in rich shades of brown, and heated 
with hot air." A similarly startling statement was that 
made by a good clergyman in Iowa, who advertised the 
Sunday services in this way : * * * " The subject of 
the morning sermon will be ' Hell/ Miss Jones and 
Miss Smith will sing that appropriate duet, ' Tell Mother, 
I '11 Be There.' " 

To meet the demands of clearness as related to his 
audience, the maker of a speech needs to ask himself 
one other question : " Do I so express my thought that 
my hearers must understand it as I wish them to under- 
stand it ? " Until he can answer this question in the 
affirmative, his work is not done. By every necessary 



112 The Making of an Oration 

device, therefore, let him set forth his thought until he 
is sure that it is laid hold of by those that hear. So let 
him hold it up as a jewel, turning its various facets 
toward them at different angles of vision, that they may 
catch its full significance and see it scintillate and glow 
in all its splendor. 

(2) Some of the Means of Securing Perspicuity. — 
Want of perspicuity is not infrequently due to an 
excessive proportion of classical derivations. These are 
valuable for purposes of precision, and for those fine 
distinctions that precision demands. But we need to 
remind ourselves again that oratory is preeminently 
popular discourse. It is for the plain people. The basis 
of the people's language is the homely, straightforward, 
virile Saxon. Consequently they will apprehend and 
appreciate more readily a speech whose vocabulary is 
largely Saxon. It is their native tongue. 

The King James version of the Bible comes as near 
to being the language of the common people, so far as 
its vocabulary is concerned, as any book which is the 
work of scholars that can be named. It is doubtless 
this reason, partly, that makes this version the hand- 
book of the English-speaking world. Take for illus- 
tration its rendition of the Lord's Prayer: 

Our Father which art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. 
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in 
Keaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us 
our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into 
temptation, but deliver us from evil; for thine is the king- 
dom, and the power, and the glory forever. 



General Qualities of Style 113 

Of the different words that make up this most beau- 
tiful of prayers, ten out of eleven are of Saxon vocabu- 
lary. This is probably about a fair proportion of Saxon 
words found in the speech of the average English- 
speaking people. Let anyone attempt to put the same 
thoughts and impressions into equivalent words of Latin 
or Greek origin, and note how much the passage loses 
of compactness, force, simplicity, sincerity, and music. 
Try the same experiment with the Twenty-third Psalm 
or with the Thirteenth Chapter of First Corinthians, and 
observe how the lifeblood has been drained from them 
so that these sublime passages are pale and flabby in 
comparison. 

It is especially desirable that the emphatic words be 
of Saxon origin. These are the terms to which atten- 
tion is particularly directed. Consequently they should 
be such that no effort will be needed on the part of the 
hearers to grasp their meaning. The connecting words 
and the modifying terms may then be safely left to 
interpret themselves from their connection in the sen- 
tences where they appear. 

Among American orators of the first rank, no one 
stands higher than Webster for the supreme qualities of 
transparency, majesty, and force of style. For these 
qualities, his speeches depend in no small measure upon 
the preponderance of Saxon words in his vocabulary. 
As an example of this power-giving quality take a pas- 
sage from his most famous speech, the immortal " Reply 
to Hayne " : 



114 The Making of an Oration 

I shall not acknowledge that the honorable member goes 
before me in regard for whatever of distinguished talent, 
or distinguished character, South Carolina has produced. I 
claim part of the honor, I partake in the pride, of her great 
names. I claim them for countrymen, one and all, the 
Laurenses, the Rutledges, the Pinckneys, the Sumpters, the 
Marions, Americans all, whose fame is no more to be 
hemmed in by state lines, than their talents and patriotism 
were to be circumscribed within the same narrow limits. In 
their day and generation, they served and honored the coun- 
try, and the whole country. Him whose honored name the 
gentleman himself bears — does he esteem me less capable 
of gratitude for his patriotism, or sympathy for his suffer- 
ings, than if his eyes had first opened upon the light of 
Massachusetts, instead of South Carolina? Does he suppose 
it in his power to exhibit a Carolina name so bright as to 
produce envy in my bosom? Increased gratification and 
delight, rather. I thank God, that, if I am gifted with little 
of the spirit which is able to raise mortals to the skies, I 
have yet none, as I trust, of that other spirit, which would 
drag angels down. 

Other passages might easily be found containing a 
still larger percentage of Saxon derivatives, and without 
exception such passages will be effective with an average 
hearer largely because they are presented in the every- 
day speech of the average hearer. 

Among English orators John Bright has no superior 
for the homely virility, the directness, the eloquent sim- 
plicity, of his style. These qualities are mostly due to 
the fact that he was one of the common people and 
spoke the language of the common people — that is the 
plain Saxon of the great middle class of Englishmen. A 



General Qualities of Style 115 

brief selection from one of his speeches, — a speech 
delivered in Birmingham on the " Relation of Morality 
to Military Greatness," will show how large an element 
of his vocabulary was of Saxon origin: 

May I ask you, then, to believe, as I do most devoutly 
believe, that the moral law was not written for men alone 
in their individual character, but that it was written as well 
for nations, and for nations great as this of which we are 
citizens. If nations reject and deride that moral law, there 
is a penalty which will inevitably follow. It may not come 
at once, it may not come in our lifetime; but rely upon it, 
the great Italian poet is not a poet only, but a prophet, when 
he says: 

" The sword of Heaven is not in haste to smite, 
Nor yet doth linger." 

We have experience, we have beacons, we have landmarks 
enough. We know what the past has cost us, we know how 
much and how far we have wandered, but we are not left 
without a guide. It is true we have not, as an ancient 
people, had Urim and Thummim — those miraculous gems 
on Aaron's breast — from which to take counsel, but we 
have the unchangeable and eternal principles of the moral 
law to guide us, and only so far as we walk by that guidance 
can we be permanently a great nation, or our people a happy 
people. 

Of the different words in the above passage only about 
sixteen per cent are of foreign origin. The rest are of 
sturdy Saxon blood ; and to this fact is due much of the 
lucidness as well as the vigor and beauty of its style. 

The foregoing remarks by no means imply that the 
Greek and Roman derivations are to be banished from 



116 The Making of an Oration 

oral discourse. Precision can sometimes be attained by 
their help alone. Yet while this is true, it must likewise 
be admitted, even insisted upon, that faithfulness to the 
hearer requires a preponderating proportion of Saxon 
terms. Such words must form, as already emphasized, 
the groundwork of speech. The Saxon element of our 
language has the sturdy and virile robustness of the 
northern people to whose lips it was the native speech; 
the Greek and Latin elements have the grace and sparkle 
of the southern nations, and contribute to our speech 
the ease, exactness, and brilliancy that were needed to 
supplement the stolidity of the Teutonic blood. Both 
elements are essential to make of English the greatest 
language for all purposes spoken by civilized nations 
today. Neither can be ignored by him who would use 
articulate speech as an instrument for controlling the 
wills of men. 

Daniel Webster has been mentioned as an orator 
whose speeches contained a large proportion of Saxon 
words. In striking contrast to Webster stands that other 
Massachusetts statesman and orator, Charles Sumner. 
Sumner was an excellent classical scholar, and not 
unnaturally his speeches were greatly influenced by that 
fact. Not only did he introduce frequent allusions to 
classical themes, but a large percentage of his vocabulary 
was of Greek and Latin origin. As a result, while his 
style is polished and precise, it sometimes lacks in ease of 
interpretation and thus violates the great principle of 
Herbert Spencer that the best style is that which lays 



General Qualities of Style 117 

the least burden upon the hearers' interpreting power. 
The following extract from Sumner's speech on the 
" Repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law " will serve to show 
what a large proportion of his words were of Greek and 
Latin origin: 

A severe law giver of early Greece vainly sought to 
secure permanence for his imperfect institutions by provid- 
ing that the citizen who at any time attempted their repeal 
or alteration should appear in the public assembly with a 
halter about his neck, ready to be drawn, if his proposition 
failed. A tyrannical spirit among us, in unconscious imita- 
tion of this antique and discarded barbarism, seeks to sur- 
round an offensive institution with similar safeguard. In 
the existing distemper of the public mind, and at this present 
juncture, no man can enter upon the service which I now 
undertake, without personal responsibility, such as can be 
sustained only by that sense of duty which, under God, is 
always our best support. That personal responsibility I 
accept. Before the senate and the country let me be held 
accountable for this act and for every word which I shall 
utter. 

Of the words in this extract at least one-third are of 
foreign derivation. While they are not technical terms, 
they are from the vocabulary of the scholar. They do 
not constitute the plain, simple speech of the man of 
every-day thought and association. What they gain in 
exactness, they fail to gain in robustness and ease of 
understanding on the part of the unlearned. 

(3) Relation of Clearness to the Speaker. — In addi- 
tion to the immediate use for which they are pursued, 
the processes involved in the search for precision and 



118 The Making of an Oration 

perspicuity are of inestimable value to the speaker him- 
self in their reactionary effect upon all his intellectual 
and literary habits. His powers grow by what they 
feed upon. 

(a) For one thing, such habits store the mind with a 
choice and copious vocabulary. Words are the orator's 
weapons, and every new word that he makes his own is 
an additional shaft in his quiver. Every search he makes 
in the dictionary for a synonym; every effort he makes 
to express his thought lucidly and effectively, adds some- 
thing to his linguistic possessions and to the readiness 
with which he can draw on his resources. 

(b) Another result of such methods will be found 
in the orator's command of a flexible style. In seeking 
expression that has the twofold virtue of precisely fitting 
the thought and of being at the same time adapted to the 
hearer, he has gained a familiarity with and a ready 
command of sentence forms, with the order of words 
and phrases, — and with the figures and other devices by 
which clearness is attained, — a familiarity such as will 
be of increasing service to him with every speech he 
makes. Whatever be the nature of the thought in hand, 
he knows almost instinctively, as a result of long and 
rigorous practice, what form of expression is best suited 
for the best utterance of that thought, for the given 
audience and occasion. 

(c) Perhaps the greatest value to the speaker of this 
dogged mining for clearness of expression is found in 
its reactionary effect upon his own mental habits. As 



General Qualities of Style 119 

already noticed, clear speech necessitates clear thought. 
By persistent search for clear speech, therefore, one will 
of necessity acquire the habit of clear thinking. Speak- 
ing clearly will impel — even compel — him to think 
clearly, until, in time, clearness of thinking will grow 
into a sort of second nature — will become to him almost 
as spontaneous as the act of breathing. 

(4) Some Aids to Clearness. — It is not the present 
purpose to expound in detail all the devices that may 
be used for securing clearness. There are, however, 
certain forms, figures, and processes of such special 
advantage in this particular, and so peculiarly helpful 
to the public speaker, that attention may appropriately 
be called to them. 

Sometimes the first utterance of a thought may not 
be understood, even when the expression perfectly fits 
the idea. The thought itself may be difficult to grasp, 
it may be new to the audience, or it may be stated in so 
general or so abstract a manner that its meaning may 
be lost, unless that meaning be reinforced and illuminated 
in some way. In such cases the wise speaker will seek to 
make his ideas plain and interesting by every device in 
his power. He will set forth the meaning of his general 
statements by particular illustrations; will explain his 
abstract declarations by concrete exemplifications; will 
amplify and vivify the expression of his thought until it 
is so tangible and luminous that it cannot fail of being 
understood in all its significance. 

Good illustrations of the foregoing methods of securing 




120 The Making of an Oration 

clearness may be found in the works of any of the great 
speech makers of the world. The more impassioned types, 
especially, are full of examples. Almost any speech of 
that "great agitator," Wendell Phillips, will furnish 
abundant evidence. It was a common practice of Mr. 
Phillips to proclaim what he regarded as an important 
thought in the form of a short, perhaps startling, epigram- 
matic statement of a general truth, and then, in a series of 
brief, striking sentences, give concrete applications of that 
truth, mingled with simile and allusion, and impart a 
definiteness and meaning to his thought, until it would 
glow and burn before the minds of his hearers with a 
brilliancy and significance that could not be obscured. 

Example i. In the course of his speech in Faneuil 
Hall, on the eight-hour movement, in 1865, he said: 

We are ruled by brains. You might as well try to roll back 
Niagara, as to try to rule New England against her ideas. 

In this quotation, if the speaker had stopped with the 
brief, general statement of the truth without enlargement 
or figure, its importance would have passed unnoticed; 
but to make sure that its significance would be appre- 
hended he gave it concreteness and force by the striking 
analogy of Niagara. 

2. In another place he says : 

You need not despair if truth is on your side. You must 
have the truth, and must work for it. There are three sorts 
of men, — those who have the truth, but lock it up ; those who 
have it not, but work like the devil against it; and those 
who have it, and force it on the willing conscience of the 
nation. 



General Qualities of Style 121 

It is an important truth that the speaker affirms in this 
example, but if he were to stop with its bare assertion, its 
full importance would not be grasped by the average 
hearer; so the speaker applies the truth by his classifi- 
cation of men in order to show that those who battle for 
truth will win a way for it in spite of even cowardly 
indifference and fiendish opposition. 

3. In his discourse on " Christianity a Battle, not a 
Dream," the same speaker declares: 

The religion today has too many pulpits. Men say we 
have not churches enough. We have too many. Two hun- 
dred thousand men in New York never enter a church. 
There is not room. Thank God for that ! * * * Of these 
fifty or sixty pulpits in this city, we don't need more than 
ten or twenty. They will accommodate all who should hear 
preaching. The rest should be in the state prison talking to 
the inmates; they should be in North Street, laboring there 
among the poor and depraved. Their worship should be put- 
ting their gifts to use, not sitting down and hearing for the 
hundredth time a repetition of arguments against theft. 
There will never be any practical Christianity until we cease 
to teach it and let men learn to practice. 

It is not the present purpose to discuss the truth or 
falseness of Wendell Phillips' idea; the only purpose is 
to show how he made the utterance of that idea effective. 
Beginning with a startling and apparently heretical 
affirmation, he gains at once the attention of his hearers. 
He then proceeds to explain his meaning with concrete 
illustrations and applications of his thought, and closes 
with an aphorism in which the speaker's whole idea is 



122 The Making of an Oration 

strikingly set forth in a new form. Thus did one of the 
most eloquent orators of modern times exemplify the 
maxim of South, that it is the business of the orator to 
set forth his thought so as to make it " strike and stick." 
What has been said with reference to concrete expres- 
sion as an aid to clearness, suggests another method that 
is perhaps of equal value in promoting the same end. 
This is the quality of copiousness. Terse, condensed, 
epigrammatic sentences are striking and sparkling, but a 
speech made up of such sentences would not be a good 
speech. Its effect would be like that of riding over a 
corduroy road. It would be lacking in ease. When 
there is a jolt in every sentence, the style cannot fail to 
be wearisome. It would be lacking also in transparency, 
and especially in impressiveness ; and would thus defeat 
its own purpose. What is good, used in moderation, is 
destructive when employed to excess. In accordance 
with this principle, an epigram may be useful to an orator 
by illuminating his thought with its electric gleam, but a 
speech made of epigrams, by its very brilliancy, would 
be blinding and confusing. The meaning. in its fullness 
would not be grasped by the hearer, and if the speaker's 
whole thought and feeling be not sympathetically realized, 
what is the use of his speaking at all? Therefore, it 
frequently happens that the orator must so expand and 
expound his thought, so amplify and enlarge upon every 
important idea that it cannot fail to attract the notice of 
the hearer and fill as large an angle of his vision as its 
relative importance demands. The speeches and other 



General Qualities of Style 123 

writings of Edmund Burke abound in illustrations of this 
principle. Not infrequently he would begin a passage 
with a brief, sententious statement of a general truth 
expressive of an important political principle, or with a 
far-reaching maxim of practical philosophy, and then 
would proceed to amplify, illustrate, and apply the prin- 
ciple until its meaning and importance could not fail to 
be apprehended and felt by the hearers. Sometimes, on 
the other hand, he would pursue the inductive method, 
and, after setting forth his facts and ideas in detail, 
would then gather up the whole discussion into a single 
brilliant epigram, through whose lightning flash flamed 
his whole thought, burning its truth upon the imagination 
and memory, or hurtling like a thunderbolt over the 
battlefield of debate to the confusion of his adversaries. 
But whatever order was observed, the process illustrates 
the value of copious development. 

In his speech before the electors of Bristol, Burke 
begins one passage of his justification in this way: — 
" Gentlemen, the condition of our nature is such that we 
buy our blessings at a price/-' Had he stopped with this 
statement, the importance of the truth enunciated or its 
application to the case then in hand would not have been 
appreciated by his auditors. But he does not stop there. 
He goes on: 

The Reformation, one of the greatest periods of human 
improvement, was a time of trouble and confusion. The 
vast structure of superstition and tyranny which had been 
for ages in rearing, and which was combined with the inter- 



124 The Making of an Oration 

est of the great and of the many; which was molded into 
the laws, the manners, and civil institutions of nations, and 
blended with the frame and policy of states, could not be 
brought to the ground without a fearful struggle; nor could 
it fall without a violent concussion of itself and all about it. 

So he proceeds to illustrate and apply the great truth 
enunciated in the first sentence, until the importance of 
that truth occupies its full place in the hearers' minds, 
looming high and large till its rugged peaks prick their 
sky and fill the horizon of their thought. 

Closely akin to copiousness of expression as a method 
of securing clearness may be mentioned the device of 
repetition. By repetition, as Professor Genung well 
says, " is not meant mere reiteration." It is rather the 
expansion of a thought by expressing its different phases 
and shades of meaning in other language than that em- 
ployed in its first utterance, by turning it this way and 
holding it that way so as to let the hearers view it in its 
various aspects. Thus each repetition not only repeats 
the idea but adds something to the idea, so that its mean- 
ing and significance, with every step, becomes more 
definite and more luminous. This device serves both to 
impart clearness by setting forth the real nature of the 
thought and to add force by giving that thought weight 
and concreteness. Skillfully managed, this is one of the 
most useful implements of the orator's art. 

The speeches of the elder Pitt furnish many illustra- 
tions of such oratorical repetition. Thus, in his speech 
" On Removing Troops From Boston," the " Great Com- 



General Qualities of Style 125 

moner," as Lord Chatham was called by his admirers, 
said: 

i 
But it is not repealing this act of parliament, it is not 
I 2 

repealing a piece of parchment, that can restore America 

i 
to our bosom. You must repeal her fears and her resent- 

2 
ments, and you may then hope for her love and gratitude. 

Further along in the same speech he says: 

i i 

We shall be forced ultimately to retract; let us retract 

2 

while we can, not when we must. I say we must necessarily 

i i 

undo these violent, oppressive acts. They must be repealed. 

I 2 

You will repeal them. I pledge myself for it, that you will 

I 2 

in the end repeal them. I stake my reputation on it. I will 

2 

consent to be taken for an idiot if they are not finally 
i 

repealed. 

In his speech " On an Address to the Throne/' the 
same orator has this passage : 

Who is the man, that in addition to these disgraces and 
mischiefs to our army, has dared to authorize and associate 

to our arms the tomahawk and scalping knife of the savage? 

i 
to call into civilized alliance the wild and inhuman savage 

i 
of the woods? to delegate to the merciless Indian the defense 



126 The Making of an Oration 

i 

of disputed rights and to wage the horrors of barbarous war 
against our brethren? 

Webster frequently made use of repetition as a means 
of amplification and clearness. In a great speech deliv- 
ered at New York, where he was the guest of honor, he 
used this language : 

i 
I would not willingly be a prophet of ill. I most devoutly 

i 2 

wish to see a better state of things; and I believe the repeal 
of the treasury order would tend very much to bring about 

i 
that better state of things. And I am of opinion, gentlemen, 

2 2 

that the order will be repealed. I think it must be repealed. 

2 

I think the east, west, north, and south will demand its repeal. 
But, gentlemen, I feel it my duty to say, that, if I should be 
disappointed in this expectation, I see no immediate relief 

i 
to the distresses of the community. I greatly fear, even, 

i i 

that the worst is not yet. I look for severer distresses; for 

ii i 

extreme difficulties in exchange; for far greater inconven- 

i 
iences in remittance, and for a sudden fall in prices. Our 

condition is one which is not to be tampered with, and the 

2 

repeal of the treasury order, being something which govern- 
ment can do, and which will do good, the public voice is 

2 2 

right in demanding that repeal. It is true that, if repealed 

2 2 

now, the repeal will come late. Nevertheless its repeal or 



General Qualities of Style 127 

abrogation is a thing to be insisted on, and pursued, till it 
shall be accomplished * * * It should be the constant 

2 
demand of all true Whigs — "Rescind the illegal treasury 
order, etc." 

In all the immediately preceding illustrations, the repe- 
titions serve not only to make evident what the orator 
means, but to give that meaning added effectiveness and 
power. 

(b) the use of figures and other illustrative 
expressions 

In those indirect forms of expression called tropes or 
figures of speech we have a treasury of oratorical riches, 
whose value can hardly be overstated. From its very- 
nature as oral discourse, whose purpose is to move the 
will on a particular occasion, the speech must be grasped 
in all its significance at a single hearing. Much of its 
effectiveness depends upon the extent and direction with 
which it kindles and guides the emotions and the imagi- 
nation. In no less degree than poetry, therefore, must it 
be luminous, interesting, and picturesque. Whatever 
other qualities it possess, it must be vivid. Consequently, 
perspicuity may justify and even demand a freer use of 
those figures that promote such qualities than the strict 
needs of precision alone would warrant. 

Although the nature of oratory justifies and finds 
valuable the free use of figures, care should be taken to 
use them only when they will promote some legitimate 
purpose for which the speech is given. They should 



128 The Making of an Oration 

never be employed for their own sake. The mere fact 
that a figure is good and attractive in itself should never 
lead the speaker to go out of his way in order to find a 
chance to use it. Never " lug in " a figure. Never let it 
obtrude itself upon the attention and by so doing obscure 
the real thought or proper feeling with reference to the 
" object." These are good maxims to observe. If the 
figure will help you on your way, make use of it. More 
than this is vanity. 

The underlying principle of those figures that promote 
clearness is found in the quality of comparison. By 
placing a relatively unfamiliar idea alongside one that 
is better known, or by measuring an abstract or general 
truth with a concrete or particular one, the speaker im- 
parts a definiteness to his expression that otherwise might 
be impossible. He thus throws a searchlight upon his 
thought in whose splendor that thought stands out sharp 
and luminous before the hearers' mental vision. It was 
a recognition of this principle, whether she knew it or 
not, that led a devout old Scotch woman to say to the 
eloquent Dr. Guthrie : " Pastor, I like the likes o' your 
sermons best, for I can understan' them a'." 

It goes almost without saying that the figures which 
promote clearness, at the same time add force and beauty, 
while the figures peculiarly adapted to secure these latter 
qualities are likewise promotive of clearness. 

Of all the figures that help the acquisition of clearness 
it is not necessary now to speak. It will be important 



General Qualities of Style 129 

to refer to a few only which are peculiarly useful to the 
public speaker. 

Among these the first that merits attention is the 
simile. If the orator is not sure that he is understood, he 
may liken his thought to a more familiar idea belonging 
to a different category. Granting that the comparison is 
truly and skillfully drawn, the hearer at once says to him- 
self : " If that is what he means, I now understand him," 
and not improbably there will also come into his con- 
sciousness the admission : " The speaker is right ; I 
agree with him." For conviction not infrequently has 
enlightenment for its chief cornerstone. 

Daniel Webster was very skillful in his use of this 
figure. By it he would sometimes draw a picture glowing 
with all the radiance of a painter's imagination. So he 
not only gave to his expression increased beauty, but he 
imparted to his thought a new significance. 

In his eulogy on Adams and Jefferson, he says : 

Like the mildness, the serenity, the continuing benignity 
of a summer's day, they have gone down with slow-descend- 
ing, grateful, long-lingering light; and now that they are 
beyond the visible margin of the world, good omens cheer us 
from the bright track of their fiery car. 

Sometimes, on the other hand, he makes this figure 
serve not only to illumine his thought but to have all the 
effectiveness of an argument. Thus in his " Reply to 
Hayne," by the use of a comparison of a lower order 
than that to which the object itself belongs, he made 
clear his own thought and in doing so he at the same time 



130 The Making of an Oration 

utterly demolished and made contemptible the argument 
of his antagonist. He is referring to Colonel Haynes' 
genealogy of the Federal party. He says : 

He traced the flow of federal blood down through suc- 
cessive ages and centuries till he brought it into the veins of 
the American tories * * * From the tories he fol- 
lowed it to the federalists; and as the federal party was 
broken up, and there was no possibility of transmitting it 
farther on this side of the Atlantic, he seems to have discov- 
ered that it has gone off collaterally, though against all the 
canons of descent, into the ultras of France, and finally 
become extinguished, like exploded gas, among the adhe- 
rents of Dom Miguel. 

The great pulpit orator, Henry Ward Beecher, was 
also very skillful in the use of the simile. In his famous 
speech at Manchester, England, during the Civil War, 
when speaking of the abolition of slavery in the state of 
New York, he said : 

The slaves were emancipated without compensation, on 
the spot, to take effect gradually, class by class. But after a 
trial of half a score of years the people found this gradual 
emancipation was intolerable. It was like gradual amputa- 
tion. 

Later in the same speech he said : 

It (the constitution) does not recognize the doctrine of 
slavery in any way whatever. It was a fact ; it lay before the 
ship of state, as a rock lies in the channel of the ship when 
she goes into harbor; and because a ship steers round a rock, 
does it follow that the rock is in the ship? 

Thus he gave to his thought a luminous significance 



General Qualities of Style 131 

and concreteness that could, perhaps, have been so well 
attained in no other way. 

Even more than simile is the metaphor an aid to clear- 
ness and concreteness. This is, perhaps, the most com- 
mon figure in the language. Our speech is full of it; 
indeed so common and spontaneous is it that someone 
has said that language itself is but a collection of faded 
metaphors. It is a figure common to all grades of cul- 
ture, all classes of people, all walks of life. It is used 
and appreciated by the scholar in the closet and the 
hoodlum in the street ; by the preacher in the pulpit and 
the criminal in the prison ; by the patriarch full of years 
and of wisdom and the child prattling to his mother or 
screaming to the heedless ears of his playmates at their 
games. 

Like the simile, the metaphor is based on the principle 
of comparison; but, unlike the simile, this figure implies 
the comparison rather than expresses it. It is not only 
equally promotive of clearness, but it has the added virtue 
of greater strength and attractiveness. Various reasons 
for this have been suggested. For one thing, of course, 
it is briefer than the related figure, and brevity always 
tends to strength. But still more is the figure forcible 
and suggestive because it lifts the material into the region 
of the spiritual, or gives to the spiritual the definiteness 
and concreteness of the material. Thus it imparts to the 
abstract, qualities that appeal to the mind through the 
senses, and gives to ideas that otherwise would seem 
gross and commonplace, a meaning and picturesqueness 



132 The Making of an Oration 

that make them appeal at once to the understanding and 
the imagination. 

To the orator, especially, is this figure of great value. 
It helps him to reveal his whole thought and feeling in 
a single utterance. It is a lightning flash which serves 
at once to illumine and intensify an idea that otherwise 
might be obscure and insignificant in the cloudy dullness 
of literal statement. 

That brilliant southerner, Henry W. Grady, was a 
master of metaphor. In his great speech " The New 
South " we find examples, only one or two of which may 
be quoted here. When speaking of the results of the 
Civil War, he said : 

We fought hard enough to know that we were whipped, 
and in perfect frankness accept as final the arbitrament of 
the sword to which we appealed. The South found her jewel 
in the toad's head of defeat. 

Again he said : 

We have sowed towns and cities in the place of theories. 

And again: 

We have smoothed the path to the southward, wiped out 
the place where Mason and Dixon's line used to be, and 
hung out our latchstring to you and yours. 

And again: 

We have let economy take root. 

Now it will be noticed that in all these cases the figures 
are so closely connected with the sentiment as to seem 
a part of it. Indeed they are a part of it, and spring 



General Qualities of Style 133 

from it so naturally and inevitably that one does not 
think of them as figures at all until he scans them with 
more than customary closeness. 

Webster used this figure, also, with much skill as well 
as with great frequency. In his address on " The Char- 
acter of Washington," he said : 

Washington had attained to his manhood when that spark 
of liberty was struck out in his own country which has since 
kindled into a flame and shot its beams over the earth. 

If one would realize the value of the figure let him 
put the thought of this sentence into plain and unfigured 
language, and he will realize that all the life and luminous- 
ness are gone. 

We find other illustrations in the speeches of George 
W'illiam Curtis, who employed this figure with great 
felicity. In his address before the alumni of Brown 
University at the commencement in 1882, entitled " The 
Leadership of Educated Men," we find such examples 
as the following: 

Leadership is the power of kindling a sympathy and trust 
which will eagerly follow. It is the genius that molds the 
lips of the stony Memnon to such sensitive life that the first 
sunbeam of opportunity strikes them into music. 

In the latter part of this example we have, of course, 
the principle of allusion introduced, a most valuable 
figure that usually involves the metaphor. In the same 
discourse, Mr. Curtis has occasion to allude to Cavour, 
the statesman of Italian unification, and speaks of him 
in this way: 



134 The Making of an Oration 

His enthusiasm of conviction made no calculation of 
defeat, because while he could be baffled he could not be 
beaten. It was a stream flowing from a mountain height, 
which might be delayed or diverted, but knew instinctively 
that it must reach the sea. 

In all such cases the value of the metaphor is threefold : 
it not only makes clear by identifying an idea that might 
not otherwise be very obvious with one well known, but 
at the same time it makes the thought striking and attrac- 
tive by appealing to the imagination. 

While figures are very useful in giving clearness, at- 
tractiveness, and force to language, the speaker needs to 
emphasize the caution against the danger of confusing 
them. Mixed figures are as intoxicating to the mind 
as mixed drinks are said to be to the body. Sometimes 
a sentence may be grammatically correct and rhythmically 
attractive but utterly nonsensical because of the confusion 
resulting from this fault. 

For illustration, a student once, in a college exercise, 
gave utterance to this startling declaration : " This evil 
invades every department of society, and its upas shade 
blights the state at its fountain, while its evil machina- 
tions strike at the very tap root of our social life." Surely 
any evil that would do all those things must be horrible 
indeed ! Another student declared : " Wendell Phillips 
had placed his hand to the plow and would not turn back 
till the last gun was fired." What a strange mixture of 
agriculture and military science! Still another student 
in the same institution conveyed to his greatly interested, 



General Qualities of Style 135 

if not enraptured, audience the information that u Our 
influence has tended to make them arise and desire to 
yoke their slow steed of conservatism to our fast flying 
bird of progress." That would make a strange team. It 
would drive better, however, if the young man whose 
genius invented it were to pluck a few feathers out of 
the tail of his bird and make of them wings for his 
horse, although it might be doubtful whether even so he 
could make of his steed a Pegasus capable of soaring to 
as great heights as would his harnessed bird. His " bird 
of progress " must have been a goose, and a wild one at 
that. 

Such a grotesque confusion of language is due of course 
to an equally grotesque confusion of thought. As al- 
ready remarked, the first secret of clear speaking and 
clear writing is clear thinking. The one law that the 
speaker needs to enforce with reference to himself when 
using metaphor is the homely old maxim : " Have your 
thoughts about you." 

The habit of mixing metaphors is frequently illustrated 
in a certain type of cheap discourse that seems to mis- 
take the bombastic speech of demagogues and the swelling 
paragraphs of sensational newspapers for eloquence. 
When such a paper says : " We see now that old war- 
horse of Democracy waving his hand from the deck of the 
sinking ship," we cannot help feeling that it would be 
more consistent to represent him as flirting his tail or 
kicking up his heels as the ship goes down ; and when the 
socialist orator shouts : " The chariot of Revolution is 



136 The Making of an Oration 

rolling and gnashing its teeth as it rolls," we are con- 
strained to wonder what sort of a mongrel wild beast 
Revolution has harnessed. 

This atrocious habit is closely related to and almost 
identical with the common fault of indulging in " fine 
writing." Such bombast, however, may correct itself by 
its very extravagance. When a very young writer, in at- 
tempting to instruct the world with reference to the 
atrocities of war, says, " We think of the monstrous 
engine of destruction, which with one awful belch may 
mow a path through a company of men ten miles in the 
distance, built to destroy God's masterpiece on earth, 
man," we can forgive the young genius not only because 
he is young but because he has made a sentence so bad 
rhetorically as to make criticism unnecessary. 

The metaphor is likewise a great promoter of force as 
well as of clearness. Various reasons have been advanced 
in explanation of this fact. For one thing the metaphor 
is briefer than the simile, and other things being equal 
brevity always conduces to vigor. The form also in this 
figure is more closely identified with the thought, so that 
it flashes the whole conception before the mind as a sur- 
prise ; while the simile, by the use of the word or phrase 
of comparison prepares the mind for the idea. The 
metaphor gives concreteness to the idea and imparts to 
it a picturesqueness that makes what in itself is abstract 
and intangible actual and material so as to appeal to the 
mind through the senses. It thus makes the unseen 
visible, the abstract concrete; it gives to ideas form and 



General Qualities of Style 137 

solidity and speed, so that they strike the minds of the 
hearers as with the suddenness and impact of a projectile 
to make those ideas " strike and stick." Still further, a 
metaphor has force, because it reaches out, as it were, and 
lifts the merely material out of the realm of the visiijle 
world into that of the spiritual. Thus it appeals to the 
imagination as well as to the understanding. So, like the 
work of the poet, this figure lifts the imagination of both 
speaker and hearer above its usual level and makes them 
live " in worlds unrealized." 

Metaphor is often involved in other forms of indirect 
speech, and its effectiveness is enchanced by the added 
force it receives through the union of its own virtues 
with the virtues of some other idea to which it is wed. 
This fact is frequently exemplified in the use of allusion. 
When Webster said of Alexander Hamilton, in referring 
to that statesman's service as Secretary of the Treasury 
in Washington's cabinet : " He smote the rock of the na- 
tional resources, and the abundant stream of revenue 
gushed forth; he touched the dead corpse of the public 
credit, and it sprang to its feet," how much more forcible 
and suggestive the idea is, not only because of the con- 
creteness imparted by the metaphor but because of the 
beauty and aptness due to the allusion ! As if lighted up by 
a blaze of midday splendor the intervening centuries are 
illumined and at one stride the imagination leaps beyond 
them and has a vision of the prophet smiting the dry 
rock of the desert and bringing forth thence a fountain 
of water for the salvation of a perishing people. 



138 The Making of an Oration 

The foregoing example suggests the value of allusion 
to the orator. Not only beauty but clearness and force 
are added to the plain expression by such indirect presen- 
tation of the thought. The law of comparison — either 
similarity or contrast — is involved in allusion as well 
as in the figures of simile, metaphor, and antithesis. 
When Tennyson makes the soul, in his poem, " The 
Palace of Art," say : 

O God-like isolation which art mine, 

I can but count thee perfect gain, 
What time I watch the darkening droves of swine 

That range on yonder plain. 

In filthy sloughs they roll a prurient skin, 
They graze and wallow, breed and sleep; 

And oft some brainless devil enters in, 
And drives them to the deep — 

he enhances both the meaning and the vigor of the 
expression by the figure likening the people to swine and 
by the allusion to the miracle. Another example of the 
same principle occurs a little further on in the same poem, 
in the stanza : 

When she would think, where'er she turned her sight, 

The airy hand confusion wrought, 
Wrote " Mene, mene," and divided quite 

The kingdom of her thought. 

Wendell Phillips was exceedingly happy in his use of 
allusion. A single illustration will be sufficient to show 
not only his skill, but also to exemplify the value of this 
figure. The quotation is from Mr. Phillips 5 speech on 



General Qualities of Style 139 

" Public Opinion " delivered before the Antislavery So- 
ciety of Massachusetts in January, 1852. The anti- 
slavery party, including Mr. Phillips, was greatly incensed 
at Daniel Webster for his "Seventh of March Speech," 
that they believed was a bid for the nomination to the 
presidency by seeking to curry favor of the slave holders. 
In the speech Mr. Phillips paid his respects to Webster, 
loading him with obloquy and contumely. In the course 
of the passage in which he especially refers to the great 
statesman and orator he says : 

He (Webster) gave himself up into the lap of the Delilah 
of slavery, for the mere promise of a nomination, and the 
greatest hour of the age was bartered away, — not for a mess 
of pottage, but for the promise of a mess of pottage, — a 
promise, thank God ! which is to be broken. I say, it is not 
often that Providence permits the eyes of twenty millions 
of thinking people to behold the fall of another Lucifer, from 
the very battlements of Heaven, down into that " lower deep 
of the lowest deep" of hell. On such a text, how effective 
the sermon! 

In this passage there are no less than four allusions 
including the quotation. 

The value of allusion depends, of course, upon its 
source being understood. When an orator refers to a 
corrupt city government as an Augean stable that needs 
to be cleansed, the allusion is without significance unless 
the hearers are familiar with the Greek myth of Hercules 
and the mighty task that was assigned him. So unless the 
reader readily recalls the dramatic story of Belshazzar's 
feast, the force of the reference in the last stanza quoted 



140 The Making of an Oration 

above from " The Palace of Art " will not only be lost 
but will be positively confusing. It is often wise, there- 
fore, for the orator to introduce enough explanation of 
the original story or event to make sure that the basis of 
the allusion is understood and its application to the par- 
ticular matter in hand is apprehended and appreciated. 

Antithesis is a figure that makes use of the law of com- 
parison by way of contrast or opposites. When one idea 
is placed over against another not only unlike but an- 
tagonistic to itself and better understood than itself, its 
meaning is not only made clear but emphasized. The 
peculiar quality of each member of the comparison is 
intensified by standing it over against its opposite. An- 
tithesis may find exemplification in words that are placed 
in contrast, or in sentences so constructed as to make op- 
posite ideas emphasize each other by the very fact of 
their juxtaposition. The mountain seems higher when 
it is viewed from the valley at its foot. 

The law of antithesis is much broader, however, in 
its application than in the case of single words. It ex- 
tends, as well, to sentences, entire paragraphs and even 
whole productions. It is the underlying principle of the 
balanced sentence, in which part of speech contrasts with 
part of speech, phrase balances phrase, and clause cor- 
responds to clause. 

Macaulay dearly loved a good antithesis. In his pas- 
sion for clearness and vividness of language he often 
found this principle of great service, although his liking 
for the figure sometimes led him to say a little more 






General Qualities of Style 141 

than strict adherence to his thought would justify. For 
instance when he said, in his famous description of the 
Puritans : " The Puritans hated bear-baiting, not be- 
cause it gave pain to the bear but because it gave pleasure 
to the spectators," he made a very striking sentence, but 
at the same time he condemned the Puritans too strongly 
and also, without intending it, praised them for objecting 
to brutalizing the spectators by torturing the brute. The 
same fundamental principle of contrast underlies the fol- 
lowing characterization of the Puritans, in which Macau- 
lay sets forth another quality of their attitude toward 
mankind. This passage shows the advantages of con- 
trast without the disadvantages such as the sentence 
quoted above reveals : " On the rich and the eloquent, 
on nobles and priests, they looked down with contempt: 
for they esteemed themselves rich in a more precious 
treasure, and eloquent in a more sublime language, nobles 
by right of an earlier creation, and priests by the imposi- 
tion of a mightier hand." In this splendid sentence the 
writer not only secures emphasis for his idea by the con- 
trast he institutes between the first clause of the passage 
and all that follows, but he quickens the imagination by 
the same device and at the same time satisfies the ear 
by the cadence and music of the sentence as a whole. 

Lincoln frequently made use of the principle of con- 
trast, and some of his most famous passages depend for 
their effectiveness, so far as the mere manner of expres- 
sion is concerned, largely upon the skillful employment 
of this law. A striking example of this fact is found in 




142 The Making of an Oration 

the Gettysburg address ; and it will be a profitable study 
for the student to examine this remarkable piece of ora- 
tory in detail and to note the extent to which its signif- 
icance depends upon the way in which the speaker in this 
immortal address makes word stand over against word 
and idea against idea. A few of the more prominent 
illustrations will be seen from the following arrangement 
in parallel lines : 

Four score and seven now 

Our fathers we 

We have come to dedicate .... those who gave their lives 

We cannot . . consecrate the brave men . . have 

consecrated 
The world will little note. . . , . .but it can never forget 
nor long remember 

What we say here what they did here 

We have come to dedicate a portion of that field .... 

r It is for us to be dedicated 

and so on in much more intricate and subtile relations, the 
whole wonderful speech is permeated, saturated, made 
emphatic and beautiful not only by the thought but by the 
way in which the thoughts in their varying aspects are 
made to help one another by thus being marshaled over 
against one another as if in contrasting columns. 

The value of contrast as a means of both clearness and 
force can hardly be overemphasized. Burke often, es- 
pecially in his more impassioned moments, freely availed 
himself of the advantage of this construction. In his 
first speech in the trial of Warren Hastings, after giving 



General Qualities of Style 143 

an account of the offenses for which the accused is 
brought to trial before the House of Lords, he bursts 
into the following terrific invective : 

He is never corrupt, but he is cruel; he never dines with 
comfort, but where he is sure to create a famine. He never 
robs from the loose superfluity of standing greatness; he 
devours the fallen, the indigent, the necessitous. His extor- 
tion is not like the generous rapacity of the princely eagle, 
who snatches away the living, struggling prey; he is a vul- 
ture, who feeds upon the prostrate, the dying, and the dead. 

Wendell Phillips often used the law of contrast with 
tremendous effect, especially in his antislavery speeches 
— used it sometimes as a lash to sting and flay his an- 
tagonists for what he regarded as their shortcomings, 
sometimes as a trumpet to rouse and quicken his follow- 
ers and fellow abolitionists to action. At a meeting in 
Boston in 1861, just after the attack upon Fort Sumter, 
he made a great speech in which he urged support of the 
war, because he saw in the war the promise of freedom 
for the negro. In the beginning of his address he said : 

I rejoice before God today for every word that I have 
spoken counseling peace; but I rejoice also with an espe- 
cially profound gratitude, that now, the first time in my anti- 
slavery life, I speak under the stars and stripes, and welcome 
the tread of Massachusetts men marshaled for war. No 
matter what the past has been or said; today the slave asks 
God for a sight of this banner, and counts it the pledge of 
his redemption. Hitherto it may have meant what you 
thought, or what I did; today it represents sovereignty and 
justice. 



144 The Making of an Oration 

Further along he said, " The North thinks * * * The 
South dreams ; " again he said : " The cannon shot against 
Fort Sumter has opened the only door out of this hour. 
There were but two. One was compromise; the other 
was battle." And so he went on with a speech of great, 
almost surpassing eloquence ; and all through it he made 
frequent use of contrast to give light and point to his 
ideas. 

One of the most effective devices for securing desirable 
qualities of style is found in the rhetorical question. This 
is a question given under such conditions and in such re- 
lations that it carries with it its own answer. The speaker 
is so confident of his position, so certain of its impreg- 
nability, that he is willing to challenge opposition. It is 
a strong and striking method of affirming; and like all 
really strong forms of speech it is at the same time an 
aid to clearness. The value of the question as a means 
of giving movement and adding interest to the discourse 
is not always, apparently, appreciated. A whole para- 
graph, an entire speech, is often saved from dullness and 
failure by the insertion at the right place and in the right 
manner of a question. A long series of affirmations may 
become " stale, flat, and unprofitable," tending to mental 
drowsiness and defeat, which may be redeemed from their 
stolidity by a question or two, and be given life and 
power by simply changing the sentence from an asser- 
tion to an interrogation. This is an attractive form of 
speech, but for this very reason it should be used with 
moderation and only when the thought and feeling justify. 



General Qualities of Style 145 

In impassioned speech, in the expression of strong con- 
viction, in vigorous and intense reasoning — this figure 
is an invaluable possession. 

Senator Hoar, in his speech on the Philippine Ques- 
tion, made frequent and effective use of interrogation — 
so effective that each query had the force of an argu- 
ment. He said: 

There were no public lands in the Philippine Islands, the 
property of Spain, which we have bought and paid for. The 
mountains of iron and the nuggets of gold and the hemp- 
bearing fields — do you propose to strip the owners of their 
rightful title? * * * Will any man go to the Philip- 
pine Islands to dwell, except to help govern the people, or 
to make money by a temporary residence? * * * Is 
it credible that any American statesman, that any American 
senator, that any intelligent American citizen anywhere, two 
years ago, could have been found to affirm that a proceeding 
like that of the Paris treaty could give a valid title to sov- 
ereignty over a people situated as were the people of those 
islands? * * * International law has something to say 
about this matter. Will the American people, for the first 
time in their history, disregard its august mandates? 

So it will be noticed that all through this great speech, 
the distinguished orator made use of the interrogation to 
quicken interest, to drive home his arguments, to enforce 
his appeals. 

In a speech, likewise on the Philippine Question, but 
on the opposite side from that assumed by Senator Hoar, 
we find Senator Beveridge also using many examples 
of the rhetorical question. In one place he said: 



146 The Making of an Oration 

What shall history say of us? Shall it say that we re- 
nounced that holy trust, left the savage to his base condition, 
the wilderness to the reign of waste, deserted duty, aban- 
doned glory, forgot our sordid profit even, because we feared 
our strength and read the charter of our powers with the 
doubter's eye and the quibbler's mind? Shall it say that, 
called by events to captain and command the proudest, ablest, 
purest race of history's noblest work, we declined the great 
commission ? 

In another place we find this passage : 

Do you tell me that it will cost us money? When did 
Americans ever measure duty by financial standards? Do 
you tell me of the tremendous toil required to overcome the 
vast difficulties of our task? What mighty work for the 
world, for humanity, even for ourselves, has ever been done 
with ease? 

One cannot help feeling that there is a little of the 
" spread eagle " type of oratory in the passages from Mr. 
Beveridge's speech, but even so, such a method of ex- 
pressing his thought with its sharp series of questions, 
is tremendously effective. Even if we grant it to be bun- 
combe, it is buncombe of a rather high class ; and it also 
illustrates the value of the rhetorical question to the 
orator. 

Patrick Henry used interrogation very skillfully. His 
most famous oration — that closing with the words, " give 
me liberty or give me death ! " may well be declaimed by 
every American schoolboy. Mr. Henry's biographer, 
William Wirt, is authority for the accuracy of this cele- 
brated speech. The following quotations will serve to 



General Qualities of Style 147 

illustrate at once the skill with which the great orator of 
the Revolution employed the question as an instrument 
of both argument and persuasion, and the savage vigor 
and almost superhuman eloquence with which he made 
the appeal to the will. 

It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. 
We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen 
to the song of that siren, till she transforms us into beasts. 
Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous 
struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number 
of those, who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear 
not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal sal- 
vation ? * * * Are fleets and armies necessary to a work 
of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so 
unwilling to be reconciled, that force must be called in to 
win back our love? * * * What means this martial 
array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission ? Can 
gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has 
Great Britain any enemy in this quarter of the world, to call 
for all this accumulation of navies and armies? * * * 
Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here 
idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they 
have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased 
at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty 
God! I know not what course others may take, but as for 
me, give me liberty or give me death ! 

In Patrick Henry's speech on " The Adoption of the 
Constitution " we find another passage which well illus- 
trates his habit of making an argument telling by the use 
of the interrogation : 

Is there a disposition in the people of this country to revolt 
against the dominion of the laws? Has there been a single 



148 The Making of an Oration 

tumult in Virginia? Have not the people of Virginia, when 
laboring under the severest pressure of accumulated dis- 
tresses, manifested the most cordial acquiescence in the 
execution of the laws? What could be more awful than their 
unanimous acquiescence under general distresses? Is there 
any revolution in Virginia ? Whither is the spirit of America 
gone? Whither is the genius of America fled? 

Whatever may be the opinion of the passage quoted 
from the address of Senator Beveridge, one can not help 
believing that the interrogations from the speeches of 
Patrick Henry sprung from profound convictions, from 
intense feeling and purpose, and from an overflowing 
heart. There is a genuineness about them that is unmis- 
takable ; they ring true, and so they are effective. 

Epigram is another figure that some speakers have em- 
ployed with great effectiveness. This may be generally 
defined as the expression of an important idea in a brief, 
striking form, that may also contain an element of sur- 
prise or a seeming contradiction. It has, therefore, un- 
derlying it the principle of antithesis or contrast, and it 
thus gives vigor and meaning to the thought. When one 
describes a good woman, who finds her work in deeds of 
service for the relief of suffering, by saying that " she is 
never happy unless she is miserable," he gives point to 
his idea by this epigrammatical way of expressing him- 
self. The force of epigram may sometimes be given to 
an expression in which an unexpected turn is given to the 
thought by the employment of a word or phrase different 
from what is naturally anticipated. An instance would 
be the following definition : " A college professor is a 



General Qualities of Style 149 

man with a vast store of rare and useless knowledge which 
he employs for the purpose of making the lives of col- 
lege students miserable/' 

Edmund Burke often made use of the epigram as a 
climax to a passage of close reasoning or of detailed ex- 
position, thus summing up the substance of a whole para- 
graph in a single sparkling sentence and making his idea 
striking and rememberable by the novelty and suggestive- 
ness of its expression. Sometimes, on the other hand, he 
would attract attention and arouse curiosity by beginning 
a passage with the epigrammatic statement, and then pro- 
ceed to expound and elaborate that statement in detail to 
show its application to the case under consideration. 

Wendell Phillips, also, was much given to this form of 
speech. He was preeminently a controversialist among 
the orators of modern days. He was never quite at his 
best unless he was assailing some abuse or attacking some 
evil or flaying some antagonist or pleading for some re- 
form. Then his language blazed with an intensity of 
conviction that made it a consuming fire, scorching, with- 
ering, burning to ashes the logic of the falsehood that he 
opposed. And, yet, he was not a brutal fighter; he was, 
rather, a scholarly gentleman — a graduate of Harvard, 
embodying in his own person the polish and culture of 
that modern Athens. He did not use the bludgeon of a 
barbarian, nor even the great sword of a Richard, whose 
effectiveness depended upon the main strength of the 
hand that grasped it; he wielded, rather, a Damascus 
blade, that glittered and flashed and scintillated with 



150 The Making of an Oration 

dazzling brilliancy, and whose razor edges cut so keenly 
and smoothly that his adversary hardly realized that he 
was wounded, until he attempted to defend himself, when 
at the first movement he discovered that he was decap- 
itated and his severed head rolled bleeding at his own 
feet. It was the language, rather than the manner of 
speaking, that gave to the oratory of Wendell Phillips its 
appalling intensity. When thoroughly aroused and at his 
best, his thoughts often came in short, snappy, piercing 
sentences, with a sting like that of a whip. Then he often 
spoke in epigram. The following examples taken almost 
at random from some of his speeches will illustrate his 
skill in the use of this figure and, at the same time, the 
value of the figure itself as a device for making thought 
clear and vigorous : 

1. I cannot help God govern His world by telling lies, or 
doing what my conscience deems unjust. 

2. Free thought in the long run strangles tyrants. 

3. Whether in chains or in laurels, liberty knows nothing 
but victory. 

4. God gives us great scoundrels for texts to antislavery 
sermons. 

5. Cannon think in this nineteenth century. 

Because epigram is a striking and valuable aid to the 
public speaker, let no one make the mistake of supposing 
that a speech made up of epigrams would be a good 
speech. This is an artificial form of expression, and 
while it is brilliant and helpful now and then when there 
is need of a condensed and striking expression of a 



General Qualities of Style 151 

thought, its frequent use would rob it of its force and 
genuineness. 

The law of climax as related to the logic of discourse 
has already been noticed. In the matter of style, also, 
this law is to be obeyed. It is hardly too much to say 
that it is to be observed in every sentence. That is, 
every sentence should be so constructed as to fulfill the 
requirements of this law — it should grow in interest 
from the first word to the last. Still further, the sen- 
tences in a paragraph should be so arranged that the last 
sentence should be the best in the paragraph. In the 
arrangement of the paragraphs the same principle should 
prevail, so that the final paragraph in a message should 
be the best, the most convincing, the most elevated, the 
most eloquent in the division to which it belongs. And 
finally the whole speech should be so constructed and so 
presented as to make it in all ways the summit of the en- 
tire discourse. 

Almost any production that is properly called ora- 
tory will furnish illustrations of climax. Webster was 
especially skillful in his mastery of this principle. The 
following examples are taken from his masterpiece 
as a commemorative orator, " The Character of Wash- 
ington," delivered on the centennial anniversary of 
Washington's birth. 

i. While the hundreds whom party excitement, and tem- 
porary circumstances, and casual combinations, have raised 
into casual notoriety, sink again, like thin bubbles, bursting 
and dissolving into the great ocean, Washington's fame is 



152 The Making of an Oration 

like a great rock which bounds that ocean, and at whose feet 
its billows are destined to break harmlessly forever. 

2. The ingenuous youth of America will hold up to them- 
selves the bright model of Washington's example, and study 
to be what they behold; they will contemplate his character 
till all its virtues spread out and display themselves to their 
delighted vision; as the earliest astronomers, the shepherds 
on the plains of Babylon, gazed at the stars till they saw 
them form into clusters and constellations, overpowering at 
length the eyes of the beholders with the united blaze of a 
thousand lights. 

In Macaulay's characterization of the Puritan, as given 
in his essay on Milton, we find an admirable example of 
the climax, that at the same time well illustrates Macau- 
lay's liking for contrast : 
) 

Events which short-sighted politicians ascribed to earthly 
causes, had been ordained on his (the Puritan's) account. 
For his sake empires had risen, and flourished, and decayed. 
For his sake the Almighty had proclaimed his will by the 
pen of the Evangelist, and the harp of the prophet. He had 
been wrested by no common deliverer from the grasp of no 
common foe. He had been ransomed by the sweat of no 
vulgar agony, by the blood of no earthly sacrifice. It was for 
him that the sun had been darkened, that the rocks had been 
rent, that the dead had risen, that all nature had shuddered 
at the sufferings of her expiring God. 

A marked example of climax as applied to the whole 
speech is the eloquent peroration, already quoted, of 
Webster's " Reply to Hayne." 

Whether the orator always constructs his language so 
as to make every sentence a marked climax or not, he 



General Qualities of Style 153 

does need to be on his guard lest by carelessness he weaken 
his thought by allowing its development to proceed from 
a stronger to a relatively weaker expression. An anti- 
climax is likely to make, not only the idea, but the man 
that utters it absurd. A good rule is, Let the strong- 
ideas be expressed in strong words, and let these words 
be put in the correspondingly strong places. The debili- 
tating effect of anticlimax will be seen in the following 
sentence from Dr. Marsh's Lectures on the English 
Language : 

Language can inform them (words) with the spiritual 
philosophy of the Pauline epistles, the living thunder of 
Demosthenes, or the material picturesqueness of Russell. 

When it is desired to give a touch of humor to an 
expression the anticlimax may be justifiable and even 
helpful ; as when Thackeray says : 

We cannot expect to be loved by a relative whom we have 
knocked into an illuminated pond, and whose coattails, pan- 
taloons, nether limbs, and best feelings we have lacerated 
with ill treatment and broken glass. 

Intentional anticlimax for the purpose of humorous 
absurdity is well illustrated in DeQuincey's essay, " Mur- 
der Considered as One of the Fine Arts " : 

Never tell me of any special work of art you are medi- 
tating — I set my face against it in toto. For, if a man once 
indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think 
little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drink- 
ing and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and 
procrastination. Once begin upon this downward path, you 
never know where you are to stop. Many a man has dated 



154 The Making of an Oration 

his ruin from some murder or other that perhaps he thought 
little of at the time. 

All good prose has an agreeable rhythm as truly as has 
all good poetry. The voice of the orator rising and fall- 
ing, swelling and subsiding with the rising and falling of 
the sentiment, is as truly musical as is the voice of the 
singer interpreting the verse of the poet and the art of 
the musician. There is, however, this difference between 
the language of the orator and that of the poet : in poetry 
the alternation of accented and unaccented syllables is 
regular according to some stated law; in prose there is 
no law except the law of variety. With every sentence, 
with every clause, the intervals between accents change. 
It must not be supposed, however, that mere variety is 
sufficient. The language must be agreeable ; the sentences 
must satisfy the demands of a cultivated ear. Nor this 
alone: they must harmonize with the thought. If the 
sentiment is harsh, the language must be correspondingly 
harsh ; if the idea is beautiful, or picturesque, or elevated, 
or full of passion, the construction of the language in 
which that idea is expressed must correspond. It is 
hardly too much to say that every emotion of the heart 
has its own language, its own music. In a large and true 
sense all oratory is onomatopoetic. The language of 
anger is different in sound from the language of appeal; 
that of pathos from that of sarcasm. Beyond, then, the 
mere dictionary definition of its terms, language has a 
significance and suggestiveness of its own. Even if the 
hearer do not understand the language of the orator, he 



General Qualities of Style 155 

may be able from the very sound of that language to 
determine with considerable confidence the nature of the 
sentiments that the orator is presenting. This, of course, 
on the assumption that the orator is skillful in his choice 
of words and in his use of those words. Pope's assertion 
that, 

When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, 

The line too labors, and the words move slow; 

Not so, when swift Camilla scours the plain, 

Flies o'er th' unbending corn and skims along the main, 

applies as truly to the orator as to the poet. The prin- 
ciple of rhythm, therefore, demands that the orator shall 
exercise constant care and cultivate a correct taste in giv- 
ing to his speech qualities that will make it agreeable to 
the ear and at the same time expressive in its rhythm to 
the sentiments presented. It must be " speakable." 

The speeches of any great orator will furnish abundant 
exemplification of the use and value of the principle under 
discussion. Some notable illustrations are furnished by 
the speeches of Webster. Webster combined the im- 
agination and musical ear of the poet with the sturdy 
good sense and inexorable logic of the thinker. And he 
so used his poetic powers as to make them both enforce 
and illumine his logic. When standing on the Heights of 
Abraham at Quebec one early morning hour, he heard 
the drumbeat in the British fort there calling the garrison 
to the duties of the day. The thought suggested itself 
to him that England was so extensive a power that at 
every hour of the day a drumbeat would be heard from 



156 The Making of an Oration 

some British garrison to welcome the rising of the sun, 
until again it would be heard at Quebec. Afterward in a 
speech on President Jackson's Protest he had occasion to 
refer to the idea that the colonies engaged in war with 
England over a theory rather than because of any violence 
that had been suffered from the mother country. He 
spoke of the difference in resources between the com- 
batants, and alluded to England as a great military power. 
Then the thought that had come to him on the heights 
of Quebec flashed into his mind and he described England 
as, 

A power, which has dotted over the surface of the whole 
globe with her possessions and military posts, whose morning 
drumbeat, following the sun, and keeping company with the 
hours, circles the earth with one continuous and unbroken 
strain of the martial airs of England. 

In the music of this passage, with its irregular succes- 
sion of iambic and anapaestic feet, we have a rhythm not 
only pleasing to the ear, but quickening to the imagination 
by its echo of the stirring roll and thunder of the drum. 

Another passage from Webster, almost Miltonic in its 
organ-like music as well as in the sublimity of its thought, 
is taken from the oration commemorative of the lives of 
Adams and Jefferson. These two statesmen had passed 
away within a few hours of each other, on the fourth day 
of July, 1826 — the fiftieth anniversary of the passage of 
the Declaration of Independence, which significant docu- 
ment the hand of Jefferson had penned and the adoption 
of which Adams had done so much to secure. The com- 



General Qualities of Style 157 

mon council of Boston arranged to hold memorial 
services, and Mr. Webster was asked to pronounce the 
address. The oration was given at Faneuil Hall, August 
2, 1826. After portraying the characters and reciting 
the public services of the illustrious dead, the great 
orator burst into the following strain of almost prophetic 
eloquence : 

It is not my voice, it is not the cessation of ordinary pur- 
suits, this arresting of all attention, these solemn ceremonies, 
and this crowded house, which speak their eulogy. Their 
fame, indeed, is safe. That is now treasured up beyond the 
reach of accident. Although no sculptured marble should 
rise to their memory, nor engraved stone bear record of 
their deeds, yet will their remembrance be as lasting as the 
land they honored. Marble columns may, indeed, moulder 
into dust, time may erase all impress from the crumbling 
stone, but their fame remains; for with American liberty 
it rose, and with American liberty only can it perish. It 
was the last swelling peal of yonder choir, " their bodies are 

BURIED IN PEACE, BUT THEIR NAME LIVETH EVERMORE." I 

catch that solemn song, I echo that lofty strain of funeral 
triumph, " their name liveth evermore." 

So the swelling music of his speech, like the pealing 
harmonies of a mighty organ, fill and uplift the soul 
with a majesty altogether suitable to the solemnity of the 
occasion that called it forth. 

Perhaps the first thing to rely upon in acquiring a 
rhythmical style is the instinct of a cultivated ear. Does 
the sentence, does the passage, sound well? Does its 
sound fit the idea? These are questions that the orator 
needs to ask himself when formulating his language so as 



158 The Making of an Oration 

to make it the fullest expression of his thought and feel- 
ing. In addition to these questions should come the ques- 
tion, Is the sentence, is the passage, speakable? An 
affirmative answer to these inquiries will go far toward 
satisfying the demands of rhythm and euphony. Conse- 
quently if the thought is harsh, the sound of the expres- 
sion of that thought may be harsh. Constant variety in 
sentence structure will be necessary to secure that rhythm, 
that music, that euphony which good oratory must have, 
— a succession of long and short, of periodic and loose, 
of balanced, interrogative, and declarative sentences. 

Still further, this quality can be secured and sureness 
of touch can be acquired only as the orator is willing to 
pay the price of constant, thorough, and patient self- 
criticism of his own work. Such self-criticism, however, 
for this purpose as well as for the purpose of attaining 
force, is well repaid by the results that attend and follow 
it. 

Further still: the study of those writers and speakers 
whose style is conspicuous for their euphony will be of 
great value as a means of acquiring similar excellence. 
Many of Lincoln's speeches as well as his state papers 
show a keen appreciation of euphony. He had the rare 
gift of writing in a style suitable for the speaker, and of 
speaking in a style suitable for the writer, without injury 
to his oratory. Both of his inaugural addresses and his 
Gettysburg speech were written with the greatest care, 
and yet they stand today among the most splendid ex- 
amples of American oratory. They were anything but 



General Qualities of Style 159 

extemporaneous or even spontaneous. It will be well 
for the student of oratory to study his speeches as well 
as those of Webster, Wendell Phillips, and other masters 
of eloquence, for the purpose of noting how largely the 
effectiveness of their oratory is enhanced by their mastery 
of the music of spoken discourse, and also as models 
whose excellence in this particular is to be emulated. 

The work of the orator, like that of the poet, is con- 
crete. He dreams dreams and sees visions, and he in- 
carnates his visions and dreams so as to make them " live 
and move and have a being " in the minds and hearts of 
his hearers. He does not speak abstract truth ; he makes 
truth concrete by the terms in which it is presented. The 
philosopher speaks in abstractions and generalizations, 
with the purpose of making the idea stand forth in the 
" dry light," uncolored by the imagination or the emotion. 
The orator, on the contrary, labors to present the idea 
as a living, concrete reality, clothed in flesh and blood, 
standing upon its feet, and operant in the lives of the men 
and women around him and in the world to which he be- 
longs. His thought is as profound as that of the philoso- 
pher, but with him the thought is not " unclothed, but 
clothed upon," as a visible and practical fact in human 
society. 

This principle furnishes the justification for the free 
employment by the orator of illustrations, short stories, 
incidents, concrete examples, and the like. They serve, 
if wisely introduced, to make the thought clear and 
definite, to keep up the interest of the audience in the sub- 



160 The Making of an Oration 

ject of discussion, to avoid dullness, to give point and 
reality to the speech. Sometimes an audience may need 
to be amused even, in order that it may not lose alert- 
ness and so become indifferent to the theme. 

It was to give concreteness to his theme that Edmund 
Burke, in his speech in the trial of Warren Hastings, en- 
titled " The Nabob of Arcot's Debts," introduced the 
famous passage known as " Hyder Ali's Invasion of the 
Carnatic." A mere statement to the effect that Hyder 
Ali caused suffering and devastation by that invasion 
would have had little power to move his hearers. But 
they were moved with indignation and horror when he 
pictured the scourge of war in concrete language. He 
said: 

When at length Hyder Ali found that he had to do with 
men who * * * were the determined enemies of human 
intercourse itself, he decreed to make the country possessed 
by these incorrigible and predestinated criminals a memor- 
able example to mankind. He resolved to leave the whole 
Carnatic an everlasting monument of vengeance. He drew 
from every quarter whatever a savage ferocity could add to 
his new rudiments in the arts of destruction ; and compound- 
ing all the materials of fury, havoc, and desolation into one 
black cloud, he hung for awhile on the declivities of the 
mountains. Whilst the authors of all these evils were idly 
and stupidly gazing on this menacing meteor, which black- 
ened all their horizon, it suddenly burst, and poured down 
the whole of its contents upon the plains of the Carnatic. 
Then ensued a scene of woe, the like of which no eye had 
seen, no heart conceived, and which no tongue can ade- 
quately tell. All the horrors of war before known or heard 



General Qualities of Style 161 

of were mercy to that new havoc. A storm of universal fire 
blasted every field, consumed every house, destroyed every 
temple. The miserable inhabitants, flying from their flaming 
villages, in part were slaughtered; others, without regard to 
sex, to age, to the respect of rank or sacredness of function, 
fathers torn from children, husbands from wives, enveloped 
in a whirlwind of cavalry, and amidst the goading spears of 
drivers, and the trampling of pursuing horses, were swept 
into captivity in an unknown and hostile land. Those who 
were able to evade this tempest fled to the walled cities; but 
escaping from fire, sword, and exile, they fell into the jaws 
of famine. * * * For eighteen months, without inter- 
mission, this destruction raged from the gates of Madras to 
the gates of Tanjore; and so completely did these masters of 
their art, Hyder Ali and his more ferocious son, absolve 
themselves of their impious vow, that, when the British 
armies traversed, as they did, the Carnatic for hundreds of 
miles in all directions, through the whole line of their march 
they did not see one man, not one woman, not one child, not 
one four-footed beast of any description whatever. One dead, 
uniform silence reigned over the whole region. 

The introduction of illustration, incident, anecdote 
is permissible only when they help and are needed by the 
thought and will further the object. They should never 
be introduced for their own sake. A good story, an in- 
teresting incident, or a laughable joke, should never be re- 
lated simply because it is good or interesting or laughable. 
It must have a bearing that is obvious as used upon the 
matter in hand. Otherwise, instead of helping to make 
the speech a good one, by so much it tends to make it a 
bad one by distracting the attention from the question 
at issue. 



162 The Making of an Oration 

This caution needs to be especially emphasized with 
reference to the use of amusing stories. It is almost 
fatal to the effectiveness of any speaker to have the repu- 
tation of being a " funny man." A laugh at the witticism 
of a speaker is sweet to his vanity, but if he pampers 
his vanity by feeding it too much on this kind of pabulum, 
he may discover when too late that men have come to 
regard him as a joker without serious purpose, and may 
finally think of him not only as a joker but as a joke. 
An amusing story now and then is allowable and, if it 
sharpens the point of an argument or illumines an idea, it 
may be helpful to the task of the orator, but he may easily 
indulge in so many stories of this nature as to make men 
think that he is a mere story-teller, — that he speaks 
mainly to amuse. To tell funny stories is easy, but even 
those that laugh loudest at them may soon come to lose 
respect for the opinions of him who peddles the stories, 
and thus conveys the impression that they are his chief 
stock in trade. 



CHAPTER XIII 

ESSENTIAL QUALITIES OF ORATORICAL 
STYLE 

IN GENERAL, it may be said that effective oratory has 
those qualities appropriate to strong, vigorous think- 
ing, and manly, straightforward presentation of that 
thinking so as to drive it home to the apprehension and 
acceptance of the hearer. This means that its style must 
not be so elaborate as to be difficult to interpret offhand, 
while the speaker and, with him, the audience march on 
to the chosen goal. Consequently, its words will, as al- 
ready noted, be mainly Saxon, short, clear, — the vocab- 
ulary of everyday speech, the language of the common 
people. Of course, the nature of the vocabulary, the con- 
struction, all the qualities of style will be determined 
largely by the kind of audience — its culture, habits, in- 
terests, — and by the nature of the subject of discourse 
But any audience, even an audience of scholars, will ap- 
preciate the simple, virile, homely language of everyday 
life, that wrestles with the thought and with them, like 
an athlete who, stripped of unnecessary clothing, strug- 
gles with them to make them see his thought as he sees 
it, and act accordingly. 

Nouns and verbs are the strong words of language; 

163 



164 The Making of an Oration 

adjectives and adverbs are merely modifiers, to give shade 
and direction and limitation to the thought. A good rule 
for the user of language, then, is to cut out all such 
words not essential to the thought. For vigor, never use 
an adjective or an adverb, if you can help it. The mul- 
tiplication of modifiers, instead of strengthening, weakens 
the style. 

Another good law to observe is to seek suggestive 
words. The study of the derivation and history of words 
is very helpful to him who would use them with power. 
Make the vocabulary picturesque, robust, appealing to 
the imagination. Sometimes a single word will bring 
before the mind a whole event, a scene, a history, an 
argument. 

All types of discourse will be found in oratory, and 
the language of all forms should be made familiar. De- 
scription, narration, exposition, argumentation, — the 
simplest prose, the sublimest poetry — all are tools of the 
orator, with which he needs to be familiar. 

The main types of discourse that the orator will use 
are argument and exposition. But whatever the particular 
form at any place in the speech, the language should suit 
the thought. The argument of the orator is not the ar- 
gument of the mathematician, who is satisfied with the 
mere intellectual demonstration of the truth of his prop- 
osition. It is not enough for him to show that two 
and two make four. He must make his two and two 
stand for something beyond the mere fact ; it must mean 
something in life. It is not an end in itself, sought for 



Essential Qualities of Style 165 

its own sake. The orator's logic is logic set on fire, or as 
someone has defined it, " oratory is the fusion of reason 
and passion." So, even when he speaks the language of 
argumentation, it is argumentation quickened, made alive. 
A good style for the orator is based first of all upon 
strong, vigorous thinking, and is the outcome of such 
thinking. It does not exist for its own sake, but for the 
sake of the " object " for which the speech is made. Only 
as it furthers that " object " is it a good style. In the 
advancement of his controlling purpose, the orator is like 
an athlete running a race. He casts off every weight and 
runs with diligence the race that is set before him, and 
presses toward the goal — the end to which he desires 
to lead his hearers. Every legitimate device, therefore, 
which will help him on his way is allowable. His lan- 
guage, consequently, will be so direct, so intense, so glow- 
ing with the force and fire of a man with a message that 
his whole mental, moral, and even physical attitude will 
give the impression that he has something to say, and that 
it is a matter of prime importance that he say it, and 
say it in such a way as to make his hearers see the truth 
as he sees it. It is hardly too much to say that any style 
that makes his thought clear and convincing to the under- 
standing of his hearers, that moves their feeling, and that 
finally arouses and directs their wills, is, for him, a good 
style. This, of course, always on the assumption that his 
English is correct. 



PART IV 



Gifts and Habits of the Orator 



CHAPTER XIV 

INBORN GIFTS 

ATTENTION has already been called to the fact that 
the orator is both " born and made." No man can 
become an orator of a high type unless he is born with 
certain qualities, that cannot be learned, although they 
may be developed and directed to efficient use. 

i. For one thing, the orator must be gifted with a keen 
and logical mind. Mere words, high-sounding phrases 
do not and cannot constitute eloquence. Oratory im- 
plies insight into truth, a power of reason, ability to fol- 
low a course of thought to a chosen end. 

2. The real orator has, also, by virtue of birth a quick 
and responsive imagination. He observes and thinks in 
the concrete. He has the power of vision and of express- 
ing his visions in speech. He " realizes " ideas. With- 
out this quality, to become an orator of the highest type 
is beyond human experience, and so far as we know, 
beyond human possibility. Imagination may, to be sure, 
be cultivated, may be chastened, may be stirred by cir- 
cumstances; but fundamentally it must be in the man's 
soul. It cannot be created. It cannot be manufactured. 
This quality underlies the fine fancies, the telling meta- 
phors, the illuminating similes, — all those forms of 

169 



170 The Making of an Oration 

speech that serve to uplift the mind above the sordid and 
commonplace thoughts of everyday, matter-of-fact ex- 
periences. It is this, partly, that allies the orator to the 
poet ; it is this that makes him, also, move about " in 
worlds not realized." 

3. Another quality essential to eloquence is that of feel- 
ing. In this matter as well as in moral and spiritual ex- 
periences, it is fundamentally true that " out of the heart 
are the issues of life." Only as he has a sensitive emo- 
tional system, feelings that kindle into a flame at the 
slightest contact with the torch of reason, can he speak 
with power. It has been well said that " the man who 
can't put fire into his speeches should put his speeches 
into the fire." 

Feeling in speech is something that cannot be a matter 
of artifice. No man can speak with the deadly earnest- 
ness that carries conviction and action with it, who does 
not himself feel to the bottom of his soul the truth, the 
importance, the overwhelming necessity of the " object" 
he is urging. How can he hope to move others, unless 
he, himself, is moved? He needs to be stirred to the 
depths of his being with the feeling that his subject is not 
only for him but for his hearers the most important, the 
most vital subject that can engage their attention. He 
must be so filled with his subject that he has no room for 
anything else until he has delivered himself of that 
subject. It must " possess " him, bubbling in his heart, 
taking possession of his mind, controlling his tongue, in- 
spiring his whole speech. When he so feels, he will 



Inborn Gifts 171 

speak with such earnestness, with such " unction " — as 
the old preachers called it — that he will arouse similar 
feelings in the hearts of his hearers. Horace's advice 
to poets is equally applicable to orators: "If you wish 
me to weep, you yourself must first be rilled with grief." 

Now this does not mean that the speaker must give 
way to the unrestrained expression of his feelings. It 
means rather that he must have genuineness of feeling, 
before he can speak with that sincerity, that earnestness, 
that deep conviction which alone lays hold of the hearts 
and moves the wills of men. But such feeling must be 
under the mastering control of him that speaks. Hamlet 
spoke very good advice to the players, when he said, " In 
the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, whirlwind of 
your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance 
that may give it smoothness." He knew that the expres- 
sion of passion would be more effective if it conveyed the 
impression that it was held in leash by the will. But let 
no one who would be an effective orator venture to speak 
before he has brooded over his theme until it becomes to 
him the most important matter and occupies the largest 
angle of his mental and spiritual vision. Then he can 
speak earnestly, sincerely, from the heart to the heart. 
Then he will speak with power. 



CHAPTER XV 

READING FOR THE ORATOR 

A FEW words on the relation of reading to the style 
of the reader himself, may not be out of place as 
preliminary to some specific suggestion as to reading for 
the orator. 

The English language and English literature are one 
flesh, and cannot be safely divorced. He, therefore, who 
would use the language effectively must know how it has 
been used by others who have used it effectively. He 
must read the great literature of the world. The union 
of such reading, with constant writing in emulation of 
the masters, is the true laboratory method. It is the in- 
ductive process applied to the work of ascertaining the 
facts of the language at first hand and the application of 
the knowledge so acquired to the process of attaining 
power in speech on the part of the investigator himself. 

If we read the history of our great writers, we shall 
find that a surprisingly large proportion of them learned 
their art by seeing that art exemplified in real literature. 
Call the long roll of the immortals whose names make 
luminous the literary history of the world. So far as 
they revealed the secret of their power, almost without 
exception, they claim to have acquired their magic of 

172 



Reading for the Orator 173 

speech through the study and conscious imitation of the 
great writers that have gone before them. Time would 
fail to tell of Ben Franklin and Stevenson, and Bur- 
roughs, of Tennyson and Burns and Lamb, of Ruskin 
and Coleridge, of Edmund Spenser and Milton and Pope, 
of Ben Jonson and Sir Philip Sidney, of Wordsworth 
also, and Addison and DeQuincey and Irving, and many 
others whose names shine with conspicuous brilliancy 
in the firmament of the world's great writers. These have 
all gained a good reputation through the splendor with 
which their messages to men have been expressed. And 
they learned how to clothe those messages with beauty 
and power, because their own minds were enriched and 
their own style given form and impulse through absorp- 
tion, as it were, of the very heart's blood of the masters 
who went before them. So their works do follow them. 
So they have learned how to work "by watching the 
masters' work," thus gaining 

Hints of the proper craft, tricks of the tool's true play. 
One may know the rules of good writing by heart, and 
violate every one of them. We are all unconscious as 
well as conscious imitators. We catch from our asso- 
ciates habits of thought, tricks of manner, forms of 
speech. If the boy is so wise as to choose a father and 
a mother that speak good English, and select a home of 
culture where books are his daily companions, it is reason- 
ably certain that he will speak and write correctly, though 
he never learn a formal rule of grammar and though he 



174 The Making of an Oration 

would not recognize a law of rhetoric, as such, were he to 
meet it face to face. He uses the language as he hears 
and reads it as used by others. On the other hand, the 
boy that is brought up amid illiterate surroundings will 
commit linguistic murder with every sentence he utters. 
If, then, we would counteract the corrupting effects of 
evil associations as applied to this subject, we must see to 
it that all opportunity and all encouragement be given to 
read sympathetically the works of those that have ob- 
tained a place among the world's great writers. 

The preceding remarks are as applicable to the orator 
as to him who would use language effectively with the pen. 
He, too, must saturate his mind with the eloquent speech 
of the masters of assemblies, if he would himself become 
a master of assemblies. He cannot safely trust to un- 
trained genius, even on the assumption that he has genius. 
He needs to read not only for the immediate occasion, 
but as a means of general oratorical culture; not simply 
for information, but for inspiration. In general, it may 
be said that all reading, if of the right kind, will be of 
value to the speaker. All books should add something 
to his store from which he can draw as occasion offers. 
The more knowledge he has, the wider will be his stock of 
supplies and the greater will be his range of vision, the 
richer his resources. 

While all good books are of real value to the public 
speaker, certain lines of reading are especially important. 
For one thing the speaker should give much attention to 
History. A knowledge of the ancient peoples and their 



Reading for the Orator 175 

civilizations, the great works they have accomplished, the 
deeds they have done, the ideas for which they have 
stood, — all this will be of value in furnishing the mind 
with material from which the orator may draw as occa- 
sion offers. The great movements of the world, also 
crises in the progress of the nations should be familiar to 
his mind. The fall of the Roman Empire, the Refor- 
mation in the various countries of Europe, the French 
Revolution, the Magna Charta in England, the growth 
of constitutional government during the last hundred 
years, some knowledge of the great religions that have 
shaped the course of history, at least a general familiarity 
with the development of modern science, — all these 
things will be of value to him who would make of himself 
a well finished speaker. 

As of value in his work, also, the speaker should keep 
in touch with the great questions of his time. The great 
political movements of his day, not only in his own coun- 
try but in other lands ; great religious movements ; great 
missionary undertakings ; education ; reforms ; benevolent 
efforts; economic and sociological discussions, — with 
these great tides of human thought as they ebb and flow 
in the world around him, the speaker must be familiar; 
and he can best gain familiarity with them not only 
through first-hand contact, but through the reading of 
books and discussions. Thus will his thinking be kept 
abreast of the march of progress. 

Still further, he who would be an orator will do well 
to read much of biography. The history of the race is 



176 The Making of an Oration 

little more than the record of the great men that have 
led the race. The most interesting object on earth is a 
human being; the most instructive, suggestive, inspiring 
truths are those illustrated in the lives of human beings. 
The closer contact one that aspires to be a speaker can 
have with the great men of all ages, the more likely he 
is himself to become great. Many a boy has been in- 
spired to high endeavor, many a youth has been encour- 
aged to noble effort, many a man has found helpful ma- 
terial and lofty ideals, in the experiences, character, and 
achievements of other men, who have done something and 
been something in the world. 

Once more, the orator will find it of advantage to read 
much of the best general literature. From those produc- 
tions that require hard, close thinking, the fiber of his 
own mind is made tough and flexible, his own mental 
processes are quickened and lifted, his imagination is given 
a broader range, and his emotional nature a greater re- 
sponsiveness. The reading of the best poetry, especially, 
has this value. Attention has already been called to the 
fact that the work of the orator is in many particulars 
analogous to that of the poet. His mind is of the same 
cast. In powers of thought, in reach of imagination, in 
sensitiveness of emotion, orator and poet are of the same 
cast. The main difference in their work is that the work 
of the poet is in verse, while that of the orator is in 
prose, and that the poem is written to be read, while the 
oration is prepared and spoken to be heard. 

The wide reading of literature is valuable because it 



Reading for the Orator 177 

brings the student of oratory into intimate association 
with great men. We all know something of the inspira- 
tion a life may receive from contact with a strong 
personality. A college, for illustration, does not consist 
mainly of its great buildings, or its spacious grounds, or 
its splendid equipment. Its greatness is measured, rather, 
by the men that occupy its chairs and by the quality of 
the material with which they have to deal. Garfield was 
right when he said that a log with Mark Hopkins at one 
end and an eager student at the other would make a good 
college. Our life does not consist of the things that are 
seen. It consists of all subtle influences, those unseen 
forces, those strong though underground currents, that 
unite to make us what we are. How important, then, 
that the orator come into as close contact as possible with 
the great men of past ages! Every civilized being is 
what he is, — civilization itself is what it is, largely be- 
cause of the great books that have had the vitality to 
endure through the ages. Real literature persists because 
those who produced it put into it their own selves. Those 
that have had the genius to write great books or to make 
great speeches are the leaders of the world's thought and 
life today, whether we know it or admit it, or not. Almost 
thirty centuries have passed since Homer sang, yet Homer 
through all these ages has been influencing the thought 
and ideals of men, and will go on as a refining and 
inspiring force in life and character generations after 
those who make it their business to sneer at him have 
been forgotten and whose only claim to gratitude in the 



178 The Making of an Oration 

future will be that they have turned to clay and, it may 
be, then " stop a hole to keep the wind away." 

Great books are of value, because they are revelations 
of the great men that have made them. Next, therefore, 
to the privilege of sitting at the feet of the prophets who 
have poured out their own souls in their books, is that of 
coming in touch with those inspired teachers at second- 
hand through the medium of their writings. If, then, 
the would-be orator acquires a genuine love for literature 
and saturates his own mind with the noble ideals and 
language of such literature, the vitalizing energy of the 
men and women that put their own lives into their books 
will quicken as an informing force in his life to bear fruit- 
age in noble speech. Language, until it is thrilled into 
life by the magic touch of some creative power, is dead. 
Only when some genius breathes into it the breath of his 
own life, does it become a living soul. Then it is vital, 
dynamic, able to quicken, inspire, uplift others, as by 
indwelling contact of a dominating personality. 

Not only because of its effect upon his own intellectual 
and spiritual character, should the orator read much of 
the best literature, but also because he thus stores up a 
valuable source of oratorical material. This is peculiarly 
true of the study of poetry. Such study enlarges his 
powers of speech and provides him an invaluable source 
of quotable help. 

He whose mind is well stored with passages from the 
thinkers and poets of the world, need never be at a loss 
for quotations that will aid him in furthering his thought. 



Reading for the Orator 179 

By this is not meant that the orator is to be a mere re- 
peater of fine phrases ; but rather that when he needs to 
strengthen, or illustrate, or idealize, or beautify his own 
presentation of a thought and can best do so by appeal- 
ing to the authority of another, if his mind is stored with 
rich passages from the great writers of the world, he has 
at his command those passages. He can thus reinforce 
his own conclusions by appealing to the words of others, 
of recognized ability or authority. 

It goes without saying that he who would learn how 
to bring things to pass through the power of speech 
should make a constant study of the speeches of others 
who have moved men to action by oral address. The 
great speeches of the world should not only be read but 
analyzed. Plans of them should be made; their words 
should be studied; sentence structure should be exam- 
ined; the length and kinds of sentences should be con- 
sidered; their figures of speech should be given atten- 
tion ; passages should be committed to memory. 

Such study of oratory, of course, should not be con- 
fined to one channel ; it should rather be as broad as the 
subject itself. It should cover all times and all nations, 
extending from Demosthenes to William Jennings Bryan ; 
all types, — historical, legal, political, educational, ethical, 
religious ; all men who have won a permanent place for 
themselves in the list of the eloquent, — not only among 
the ancient, but among the mediaeval and modern orators. 
Chatham, Sheridan, Fox, Burke, Webster, Phillips, Er- 
skine, Beecher, Spurgeon, Maclaren, Lincoln, George 



180 The Making of an Oration 

William Curtis, Bryan, John Bright, Charles Sumner, 
Gladstone, — these are some of the modern English-speak- 
ing orators, whose speeches may profitably be studied by 
the student of oratory. 

It will be noticed that in this list are the names of some 
preachers. These names are included because some of 
the most eloquent orators that the world has known are 
found among preachers. And there is reason for this : in 
ability, in training both general and special, in the incen- 
tive that springs from the subjects with which they deal, 
in the inspiration that comes from a sympathetic au- 
dience, — in all those conditions that conspire to produce 
the highest eloquence, the leading preachers of the world, 
both past and modern, are peculiarly fortunate. The ser- 
mons of Charles Spurgeon, Henry Ward Beecher, Phillips 
Brooks, and Alexander Maclaren are to be especially com- 
mended as models of homiletical construction and style 
that may profitably be studied with great care by him 
who would learn the art of oratory. 

A marked example of the value of the right kind of 
reading upon the style of him who would learn to use 
language effectively is found in the oratory of Lincoln. 
It is hardly too much to say that for certain high qualities 
of prose expression no American writer has surpassed, if, 
indeed, any has rivaled him. Among these qualities may 
be mentioned, especially, a homely simplicity and straight- 
forwardness that goes directly to the thought and feeling. 
There can be no mistaking his meaning, and there can be 
no doubt in any mind that behind and in the language 



Reading for the Orator 181 

is a genuineness of conviction and a depth of emotion that 
show the language to be the expression not only of the 
head but of the heart. His vocabulary is largely Anglo- 
Saxon; his words are those of the common people and 
of everyday life. This is one secret, not only of his 
simplicity but of that rugged strength so characteristic 
of his speech. His sentences have, also, a rare musical 
quality. Many passages in his speeches have a music 
that affect one like the swelling harmonies of a great 
organ under the hand of a master. 

The quality just alluded to finds splendid exemplifica- 
tion in the concluding words of his first inaugural ad- 
dress. Those words sound like the solemn admonitions 
of one of the old prophets : 

I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We 
must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it 
must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic bonds 
of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave 
to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, 
will yet swell the chorus of the union when again touched, 
as they surely will be, by the better angels of our nature. 

Where did this man get his marvelous style — the plain 
and homely vocabulary, the translucent simplicity, the 
rugged energy, the soul-stirring music of his speech? 

The answer to this question is to be found first, of 
course, in the man himself. He spoke the language of 
the common people, because he was one of the common 
people. But it was that language ennobled, refined, puri- 
fied, glorified, because it had passed through the alembic 



182 The Making of an Oration 

of a great soul upon whom had been laid a mighty and 
inspiring responsibility. He had a great style because, 
primarily, he was a great man, living at a great crisis, 
speaking on great themes. 

But, in addition to what he owed to his inborn gifts and 
to the conditions of his life, Lincoln's style was due in 
no small measure to his early reading. He did not read 
many books, but he read a few until they were his own. 
But those few were Shakespeare, Milton, Bunyan, the 
English Bible. With these masters of speech as his 
models, furnishing the very pabulum of his early thought 
and life, it is not surprising that when he spoke he should 
speak their language. The influence of biblical thought 
and imagery upon his style is especially noticeable. Read, 
for illustration, the second inaugural. In one place he 
says : 

The Almighty has his own purposes. Woe unto the world 
because of offenses, for it must needs be that offenses come, 
but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh. 

And again : 

If God wills that the war continue until all the wealth piled 
by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited 
toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by 
the lash shall be paid by another drawn by the sword, as was 
said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said that 
the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. 

What has been said about Lincoln's reading suggests 
that there are some books that every public speaker will 
find it of advantage to make himself familiar with. 



Reading for the Orator 183 

The very first that should be named is the English 
Bible. Many reasons for this statement might be ad- 
vanced, only one or two of which need here be empha- 
sized. For one thing, it should be read because of the 
splendor of its language. One who would acquire com- 
mand of a strong, simple, beautiful style can do no better 
than to read in the King James English, until its language 
is his own, this book of all books. This translation was 
made by the scholars of the time, and yet it was made 
for the use of the common people. Consequently it 
blends the speech of the masses with that of the cultured 
people of that time. From Shakespeare's day to our own 
this has been the one book which everybody has known 
more or less. One whose style is influenced by the lan- 
guage of this book, therefore, is certain to use language 
suited to all ranks of men, both the learned and the 
unlearned. 

Another reason why the orator will find it an advan- 
tage to know the Bible is found in the fact that no other 
book is the source of so many quotations and allusions 
as this. It is hardly too much to say that no man can 
understand and appreciate the great literature of our 
tongue who is not familiar with the thought, stories, 
teachings, language, characters of the Bible. Our whole 
literature is saturated with it. Because of this fact, 
without reference to its religious teachings, this book 
ought to be a required study in every public school. More 
quotations, more allusions are drawn from this than from 
any other source, whose meaning cannot be understood, 



184 The Making of an Oration 

or whose beauty and force appreciatea Dy the reader, 
unless he is acquainted with the original as found in the 
Old or New Testament. Such quotations and allusions 
are so common in literature, partly because they are more 
likely to be understood and enjoyed by the reader than 
if they were drawn from obscure sources which the 
average reader or hearer would probably not be familiar 
with. Another reason is that this book is so full of 
wisdom and suggestion that it is a more prolific source 
of helpful and applicable sayings than any other book 
that can be named. Consequently, the orator should study 
the Bible both as a training in the best and most sug- 
gestive language and at the same time as furnishing an 
inexhaustible treasury of wisdom from which he may 
draw more effectively than from any other one source. 

Perhaps next to the Bible, the orator will find it to his 
advantage to know the works of Shakespeare. This, 
mainly because this greatest of English poets let the 
plummet down deeper into the mysteries of the human 
soul than any other uninspired man that has ever lived. 
The orator must know human nature, and a great help 
to the acquisition of such knowledge is always accessible 
in the plays of the Bard of Avon. In these plays, also, 
we find one of the best means of attaining power in the 
use of language. Shakespeare, it is said, employed a 
larger vocabulary than any other writer of the language. 
The speaker, therefore, who would gain a large and 
flexible mastery of speech, may wisely study the works 
of this master of speech. 



Reading for the Orator 185 

But time and space would fail to present, even briefly, 
reasons for reading books that the orator will find it an 
advantage to know for training in his art. It may be 
helpful, however, to name a few more that he will find 
beneficial and inspiring. Among these should be included 
a copy of Plutarch's Lives, The Arabian Nights, a book 
on classic mythology, The Pilgrim's Progress, Paradise 
Lost, Homer, Virgil, Don Quixote, Goethe's Faust, 
Burns' poems, Dante's Divina Comedia; with these at 
least the orator will find it an advantage to be fairly 
familiar. Such works he should have upon his own 
bookshelves, as standard and tried friends, to which he 
may always resort, with confidence that they will never 
fail him. There will be, of course, many other books 
that he will read for information, or recreation, or inspi- 
ration, or all these purposes combined. 



CHAPTER XVI 

TWO LINES OF PREPARATION 

TOO much emphasis cannot be placed upon the im- 
portance to the speaker of careful and untiring 
preparation, and hence in, i, Practice in Writing. This is 
especially true if he is gifted with readiness of utterance. 
The fluent man, — the man who is never at a loss for 
words, who speaks readily even without preparation, 
needs in particular to be on his guard. Such fatal fluency 
is a delusion and a snare. The one that possesses such 
readiness is always subject to the temptation of depend- 
ing on his glibness of tongue at the expense of that 
patient, full, and thorough preparation which alone will 
insure steady and permanent growth and a high measure 
of excellence. If genius is the infinite capacity for taking 
pains, as someone has declared it to be, surely he who has 
ability, ambition, high ideals, unfaltering determination, 
and unending industry may hope to succeed and even ob- 
tain some measure of prominence in the art of persuading 
men. The main question is whether he is willing to pay 
the price. The story of Demosthenes speaking by the 
roaring sea, with pebbles in his mouth to correct weakness 
and defects of voice, is both a lesson and an inspiration. 
Because he was willing to pay the price, because he had 

186 



Two Lines of Preparation 187 

infinite capacity for taking pains, his name for more than 
two thousand years has stood at the head of the list of 
the world's eloquent men. If Edmund Burke, with his 
superior ability and broad learning, was not satisfied until 
he had written his orations through from ten to fifty 
times, as some of his biographers tell us was his habit, 
any aspirant for oratorical preeminence may well emulate 
his example. He paid the price ; he received the reward. 

2. Training in Elocution. — It is not the purpose of this 
manual to teach elocution. It is, however, within its 
province to emphasize the importance of having a good 
elocution. This word, elocution, has been so abused and 
its use has been so distorted that we have a prejudice 
against the term itself. It is so identified in the popular 
mind with the distortions and contortions of speech per- 
petrated a number of years ago by the half-trained young 
people who traveled about the country murdering Shake- 
speare and other defenseless writers, that many educated 
people have gone to the other extreme and condemn the 
thing itself, because it has been so wofully misused by 
many of its would-be exemplars. There is, doubtless, a 
reaction toward a more rational attitude toward this 
matter at present, but even now there is room for a wiser 
understanding and saner recognition of the place of this 
subject in every scheme of education and especially in 
the preparation of the orator for the highest success. 

The instrument by which the orator communicates his 
speech to the audience is the voice. That he have full 
command of this instrument is of supreme importance, 



188 The Making of an Oration 

if he would attain the highest success. Many a man who 
had ideas and who could express those ideas in good 
English has failed or only moderately succeeded because 
of a weak, or squeaky voice, or nasal tone; or who did 
not know how to speak his words so as to make them 
effective; or who had a faulty articulation; or who 
" mouthed " his words in a way that would be a discredit 
to " the town crier." On the other hand, there have been 
men who have been able to sway multitudes by their 
power of speech, whose ideas and language have been 
hardly above the commonplace, simply because they have 
had good voices and have known how to use those voices 
with effect. The speeches of Henry Clay today are not 
particularly interesting, and the reader of those speeches 
may wonder why Clay was so popular as an orator. The 
chief explanation is found in the elocution of Clay. He 
had a voice sweet and powerful, which he used as skill- 
fully as a musician trained to play upon his instrument, 
and he had a person that, in its attitudes and gestures, 
was grace itself. 

It is the fashion in many places and of many people 
to depreciate vocal training for the speaker — to sneer 
at it as childish and to grumble at elocutionary training 
as artificial and a bar to all genuineness in public speech. 

He that takes this attitude is as unreasonable in his 
prejudice as is the one that assumes oratory to consist 
merely in declamation. An oration is to be spoken. Until 
it is " delivered " it has no just claim to the title. To be 
effective, then, it should be spoken well. If the voice is 



Two Lines of Preparation 189 

strident, harsh, squeaky, inflexible, weak, heady, or 
throaty, how can the orator expect to accomplish by it 
the best results? It would be just as reasonable to antici- 
pate for a Jenny Lind or a Melba the highest triumphs 
of song without thorough and long continued vocal cul- 
ture. One may or may not have a good voice by nature, 
but good or bad, he needs to train that voice to give it 
smoothness, clearness, power, resonance, sharpness of 
enunciation and articulation, richness, and all those quali- 
ties which he must have for the best results in his noble 
art. If the athlete, who would win contests in his arena, 
must subject himself to long months of self-denying 
practice, how much more must the contestant in this far 
more difficult arena submit to years of toil and to never- 
ending effort in order to keep himself in prime form for 
these harder tests! Let him daily practice those vocal 
exercises, and they are not so very many, that are adapted 
to make the most of the voice that has been given him 
by nature — but that probably he has greatly abused — 
until that mighty instrument is in good condition and is 
the servant of his mental processes and his trained will ; 
then by constant care let him keep it in good form, and 
it will be a faithful servant and minister to his thought 
and will. 

Reference has already been made to the fact that 
Henry Clay owed so much of his success to his voice 
and his graceful bearing. Let no one suppose, however, 
that these were his by inborn gifts. On the contrary, he 
practiced assiduously that he might perfect his elocution. 



190 The Making of an Oration 

For years, when a young man, he devoted himself to 
practice that he might make the most of all his powers. 
These efforts, he himself said, " were sometimes made in 
a cornfield, at others in the forest, and not infrequently 
in some distant barn, with the horse and ox for my 
auditors. It is to this early practice in the great art of 
all arts, that I am indebted for the primary and leading 
impulses that stimulated me forward, and shaped and 
molded my subsequent entire destiny." So he made that 
voice an instrument by which, when he came into public 
life, he swayed the multitudes that listened entranced to 
its music. He learned how to speak on real occasions by 
practicing for years on fictitious occasions. So when the 
real occasions came he was ready to make the most of 
them. 

We might cite the experience of any of the great 
orators of history, and almost without exception their 
evidence would be of a similar tenor. The biographers 
of Charles Sumner tell us that when he was about to 
make a speech in the senate, he was discovered declaim- 
ing that speech before a mirror in his room at the hotel 
where he lived. Some of Webster's finest passages were 
carefully wrought out beforehand and practiced, so that 
when opportunity came they were given with great effect. 
It was a habit of Lord Chatham, also, to toil terribly 
that he might perfect himself in all the arts of oratory. 
If ever man was a born orator, that distinction could be 
ascribed to him; but trusting not to natural gifts, he 
showed by his diligence and labor in declamation as well 



Two Lines of Preparation 191 

as in the practice of the laws of rhetoric, that in his case 
at any rate the orator was made as well as born. His 
distinguished son, the younger Pitt, toiled even more 
strenuously that he might perfect his natural gifts. We 
might add to these the names of such masters as Brough- 
am, Erskine, Curran, " stuttering Jack Curran," as he 
was called by his associates in a debating club when he 
began his practice, Grattan, Gladstone, the eloquent Wil- 
liam Wirt, Edward Everett, and hosts of others who 
have attained distinction in this greatest of the arts. 
These great speakers thought it worth their while to 
supplement their natural gifts by the most diligent and 
prolonged practice, that all their powers might be made 
the most of and be at their call whenever occasion de- 
manded. They trained not only their voices but all their 
powers, so that they became real elocutionists in the best 
sense of that much-abused term. 

Not only the voice, but the body, should be trained if 
the speaker would make the most of his powers. It is 
surprising how few people without training know how to 
stand; fewer still who realize the difference between 
standing correctly and standing incorrectly. The mere 
difference between resting the weight of the body upon 
the heels or upon the balls of the feet, often spells the 
difference between failure and success in a speech. Many 
think they are standing, when others think they are 
sprawling, or loafing, or lounging. Many a man has been 
born with brains in his head, but with awkwardness in 
every other part of his body. Knowing this he is shy, 



192 The Making of an Oration 

self-conscious, blundering. He is ever falling over his 
own feet as well as over other people's. He does not 
know what to do with his hands. If he so far forgets 
himself as to attempt gestures, those gestures have about 
as much grace and significance as the contortions of a 
jumping jack. Now, why is it not the most reasonable 
course for one with conscious talent and ambition, but 
with such physical defects, to take training from a repu- 
table teacher of elocution and learn how to correct his 
shortcomings? His very awkwardness may, wisely 
treated, become the basis of positive power in gesture and 
attitude. And, surely, without correction it will prove 
a handicap and hindrance to the highest success. 

The value of culture in elocution was well illustrated 
in the experience of Henry Ward Beecher. If any man 
could afford to depend wholly upon native powers for 
success in public speech, it would seem that he was such 
a man. The son of a distinguished preacher, brought up 
amid cultured surroundings, hearing eloquent sermons 
and addresses every week from childhood, with extraor- 
dinary talent and remarkable physical powers to begin 
with, what need had he for learning the tricks of the 
elocutionist? Why should he spend his labor for that 
which satisfieth not? The inquiry put in such a way is, 
after all, a begging of the question. He thought such 
training well worth his while. The mere fact that he 
had advantages beyond those of most men, instead of 
furnishing an excuse for neglect, was to him an added 
incentive and obligation to increased exertion. He real- 



Two Lines of Preparation 193 

ized that to whom much was given of him much would 
be required. So what do we find him doing? He placed 
himself, when at college, under a skillful teacher, and for 
three years was drilled incessantly, he says, in posturing, 
gesture, and voice culture. Not long after, at the theo- 
logical seminary, Mr. Beecher continued his drill. There 
was a large grove between the seminary and his 
father's house, and it was the habit, he tells us, of his 
brother Charles and himself, with one or two others, to 
make the night, and even the day, hideous with their 
voices, as they passed backward and forward through 
the wood, exploding all the vowels from the bottom to the 
very top of their voices. And what was the result of all 
these exercises ? Was it a stiff, cramped style of speak- 
ing? "The drill that I underwent," says this many- 
sided orator, " produced, not a rhetorical manner, but a 
flexible instrument, that accommodated itself readily to 
every kind of thought and every shade of feeling, and 
obeyed the inward will in the outward realization of the 
results of rules and regulations." 

Now, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. 
What do such examples teach us ? As another well says, 
" They prove conclusively, we think, that the great 
orators, of ancient and modern times, have trusted, not 
to native endowments, but to careful culture ; that it was 
to the infinitus labor et quotidiana meditatio, of which 
Tacitus speaks, that they owed their triumphs ; that mar- 
velous as were their gifts, they were less than the 
ignorant rated them; and that even the mightiest, the 



194 The Making of an Oration 

elect natures, that are supposed to be above all rules, 
condescended to methods by which the humblest may 
profit." 

This discussion may well be closed with the words of 
Salvini, the great actor, to students in eloquence : " Above 
all, study, study, study. All the genius in the world will 
not help you along with any art, unless you become a 
hard student. It has taken me years to master a single 
part." 

3. Another habit of great importance to the orator is 
that he cultivate the oratorical spirit. He who can con- 
ceive of his audience as always present while he is pre- 
paring his speech will have an advantage that otherwise 
would be impossible. His imagination will then be stirred, 
and if his imagination is vivid he will have something of 
the same spirit and inspiration that would stir him in 
the actual presence of an audience. As a help to him in 
preparation, also, it will be wise to pronounce his sen- 
tences aloud so as to test them, as it were, before actually 
deciding upon them. Not an uncommon thing was it for 
the most striking passages of the great orators, that 
seemed to spring spontaneously from the inspiration of 
the moment, to be wrought out with all care and 
diligence word for word days before they came so elo- 
quently from the orator's apparently inspired lips. Such 
preparation cannot be criticised as deceit ; it is only good 
sense applied to the presentation of a theme with recog- 
nition of the demands of the prospective audience. 

Care in preparation, cultivation of the oratorical 



Two Lines of Preparation 195 

imagination, thoroughness and finish of diction, must not 
be interpreted as meaning that these are the chief things 
to be sought. Figures, incidents, beauties of language 
should not be chosen for their own sake. There may be 
such a thing as too great finish. A production may be so 
polished and become so slick that the thought it bears 
may slip through the memory. It needs to have barbs, 
which, even though they irritate, will also penetrate and 
hold fast to the minds of the hearers. An illustration, a 
figure, a splendid passage that does not at the same time 
help on the purpose for which the speech is pronounced 
is as sounding brass. 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE DELIVERY OF THE ORATION 

A Methods of Delivery. — However great the care 
• and skill in preparation on the part of the orator, 
his work is not done until he has delivered himself of his 
message to the actual, living audience. Rhetorically, 
such deliverance is the end for which his speech has been 
prepared. Unless he succeed in this final deliverance, his 
labor has been in vain. He may have spent days, weeks, 
months, even years, in getting ready for an occasion that 
will be passed by in a brief hour or two. Such being the 
case, how vastly important that he be prepared to make 
the most of the occasion when it comes ! Attention has 
already been called to the importance of having a well 
trained voice and a well disciplined body, that will aid him 
in making the most of his opportunity. 

There are various methods of delivery. Each has its 
champions. Each has its advantages and its difficulties. 
Shall the speaker write his speech and then read it from 
the manuscript? Shall he write it and memorize ? Shall 
he write, and, without attempting to remember the words, 
follow the line of thought and the main methods of de- 
velopment in such detail as may come to him in the glow 
of delivery ? Shall he speak from notes, with no attempt 

196 



The Delivery of the Oration 197 

to memorize anything? Shall he memorize the main 
headings of his plan, and trust to the occasion to fill in 
the details ? Or shall he speak with no attempt to memo- 
rize anything, but out of the fullness of his information, 
thinking, and enthusiasm, on his subject, speak as with- 
out special premeditation regarding the language that he 
shall use? 

i. Some of the great speeches, that have marked 
epochs in the history of movements, have been carefully 
written and read word for word. Those tremendous ser- 
mons of Jonathan Edwards, which moved his Puritan 
hearers to cling to the pews and pillars of the church and 
cry out for mercy, were read without a gesture and almost 
without a glance of the eye away from the manuscript. 
But those sermons were delivered under peculiar circum- 
stances, to an audience accustomed to follow long and 
intricate lines of theological reasoning, by a man who, 
perhaps, was the greatest theologian yet produced in 
America. Such a combination of conditions is not likely 
to come again. Lincoln's Gettysburg speech was, like- 
wise, carefully written and read from the manuscript. 

The advantages of writing in full and reading what is 
written when the speech is pronounced are somewhat 
obvious. The speaker has the advantage of accuracy. 
He does not say in the haste of composition what he 
would not intend to say and be willing to abide by after 
the occasion has passed. There is, also, the analogous 
advantage of correctness of grammar. There are few 
that use the English language with precision in unpre- 



198 The Making of an Oration 

meditated speech. He that writes with deliberation and 
care is less likely to divorce his relatives from their 
antecedents, to put his modifiers next to the wrong gov- 
erning words, to violate the laws of unity, and to trans- 
gress the principles of coherence, than is the man that 
trusts to what he calls " inspiration." Preliminary per- 
spiration is more reliable for these qualities than occa- 
sional inspiration. If he must do one or the other, it is 
better for the speaker to read sense than to roar nonsense. 

The one that reads, also, is spared the anxiety and 
uncertainty, the fear of saying what he does not mean, 
the terror of making an utter failure. He may not rise 
to the loftiest heights of eloquence, but neither will he 
descend to the lowest depths of inane platitudes. He 
knows precisely what he is going to say to his audience, 
regardless of the state of his digestion or the direction 
of the wind. 

On the other hand, the reader loses much of that free- 
dom and dash, that magnetic touch, that play and inter- 
play of sympathy which should exist between the speaker 
and his audience, and which the man that speaks without 
the intervention of a manuscript between him and his 
hearers may possess. 

If the speaker decides to use the manuscript, some 
suggestions may be made that if followed will be of value, 
(i.) Let him write on single sheets (not folded) of paper, 
so that when he reads he can slip these sheets to one 
side without being obliged to turn them over and thus 
obtrude the manuscript upon the attention of his audi- 



The Delivery of the Oration 199 

ence. (2.) Do not use a typewriter but a pen. The 
machine makes smaller letters and the lines are rather 
close together, and do not catch the eye as readily as 
writing. Use a stub pen, or some kind that will make a 
heavy mark. Write, also, with a large, clear hand, with 
the lines far apart to enable the eye to catch the words 
and even the lines at a glance. Make no flourishes, but 
write so plainly that he that runs may read. (3.) Be 
perfectly familiar with the manuscript. One who pre- 
pares his manuscript in the way indicated above, and has 
it well in hand, will not find the paper a serious hindrance 
to him in speaking. With such preparation, and with 
good eyes, a speaker can see his manuscript from three 
to six feet away and thus be able to speak with all the 
enthusiasm of the " off-hand " speaker as well as with the 
accuracy of the writer. 

2. Some advocate the method of writing and commit- 
ting the speech to memory. There are undoubtedly some 
advantages to this method. It secures the accuracy of 
the written production and, theoretically, the freedom and 
ease of the unwritten one. A disadvantage is, that one 
who follows this method is likely to become declamatory 
in his style of speaking. It is too obviously studied. And 
it is not quite honest with the audience in that it pretends 
to be what it is not. Few can speak so naturally by this 
method as to convey the impression of spontaneity, — of 
actual face to face conversation with an audience. A 
still further disadvantage is due to the burden such a 
method lays upon the memory. It is a slavish method, 



200 The Making of an Oration 

and few are willing to undergo the kind of toil demanded 
by it. There are some that have been extraordinarily 
successful speakers who have spoken from memory. 
For students, perhaps, this is the best method. There is, 
of course, always danger that the memorized production 
will be partly forgotten — that a transitional expression, 
or the order of thought will escape the memory, and that 
the speaker will be thrown entirely off his course by the 
failure. One needs self-control, readiness cf resource, 
abundant assurance, in such a contingency. He must 
" keep the sound going," or he is lost. If he lose grip on 
his speech, he will soon lose grip on himself and on his 
audience. One, however, who can successfully pursue 
this method may well follow it. 

3. There have been men, who have been accustomed 
to write fully and then, without attempting to remember 
the language of their speech, have practically repeated it 
word for word. A few years ago, when Dr. T. Harwood 
Pattison was professor of homiletics in the Rochester 
Theological Seminary, he was talking to a small group of 
students regarding his own methods. Dr. Pattison was 
a brilliant preacher, fluent, eloquent, impressive. He said, 
in substance : " I write my sermons in full, usually at 
one sitting. Or rather I write standing at a high desk. 
Saturday evening I read my morning sermon with great 
care. Sunday morning I read it again. When the hour 
for service comes, I put the sermon in my pocket, and, 
often, during the opening services I glance through the 
manuscript again. Then I lay the sermon aside, and 



The Delivery of the Oration 201 

preach with no conscious effort to remember; but prac- 
tically give the sermon word for word as it was written." 
Perhaps such a method would become possible for almost 
any well trained man, with natural talent, and with the 
persistency of effort requisite to make the most of that 
talent. 

4. Some speakers do their best work by speaking from 
notes, carefully prepared and used as a guide while pro- 
nouncing their speech. The notes of those who employ 
this method are usually full enough to include not only 
the outline of the plan but enough of the details of 
development to furnish a somewhat complete synopsis 
of the minor details as well as the larger groups of 
thought. 

Unless one prefers this method, it is not commended 
as a good one to cultivate. It has neither the accuracy 
and fullness of writing nor the freedom of the off-hand 
production. Whatever method of presentation is adopted, 
it should be a help and not a bondage. 

5. Some of the most successful speakers advocate and 
practice the habit of using a bare outline of the prepared 
speech and not using any other guide in the delivery. If 
this method is followed, the outline should contain little 
more than the main headings of the plan, with, at the 
most, only the principal subdivisions. Then, if the 
speaker is fearful that he may forget or that he may not 
present his thought in the best order, he has his plan at 
hand as a guide. Thus he is sure of his logic, — sure 
of presenting his speech in what seems to him the best 



202 The Making of an Oration 

order, whatever be the excellences or deficiencies of the 
language in which that thought is expressed. This 
method has also the virtue of giving confidence to the 
speaker. He may never have occasion to refer to his 
outline, but he knows it to be within reach if he needs it. 

6. There is no question that the great majority of 
hearers prefer to hear the orator speak who uses no visible 
helps in the form of manuscript or even the briefest out- 
line. That is, if he speaks with equal excellence, so far as 
the thought and the language are concerned. And why 
is it not just as easy to speak in this way as it is to have a 
written outline, as well as more effective? Surely, to 
commit the plan to memory is not so very dimcult, and 
such a practice will serve as a guide, a framework, on 
which to hang the thought, as well as the same frame- 
work would serve if it were committed to paper. If the 
speaker is as thoroughly master of his theme as he is 
presumed to be, and has done the thorough work in 
preparation that he should have done, he will be so in 
command of his subject and of himself that on the basis 
of the plan that he holds completely in his mind, he can 
speak, at last, with all freedom and with all the exactness 
of which he is capable. 

Whatever manner of delivery the orator adopts, it must 
be his own. Let him choose that which best suits his own 
temperament, his own tastes, his own habits of thought. 
And then let him make the most of that method. What- 
ever method he follow, he can attain all the success 



The Delivery of the Oration 203 

within his powers if he is willing to pay the price of the 
hard labor that is the measure of success. 

But whether the speaker use a manuscript or even 
write his speech and pronounce it without reading, he 
should constantly practice writing. Thus he will develop 
habits of using language accurately. Nothing is easier 
than for one to acquire slovenly and incorrect habits of 
speech, especially if he speaks much without a corre- 
sponding amount of writing. To counteract such a tend- 
ency, therefore, he should let no day pass without some 
practice in serious composition. Whether this writing 
be the composition of speeches or of something quite 
distinct in nature, makes little difference, so far as the 
question of its effect upon his style is concerned. Care- 
ful and regular practice in writing is his security from 
looseness and incorrectness. 

B. Spirit of the Delivery. — When the time arrives for 
the orator to deliver himself of his message, then let 
him speak with all boldness. Let him speak as one having 
authority, because he knows more, probably, about the 
subject in hand than any one of his hearers. So, let him 
speak with confidence. 

Let him speak, also, with all earnestness, — with an 
intensity of conviction arising from the feeling that his 
subject is the most important theme that can then engage 
the attention of mankind. Let him speak as if his own 
life, the safety of his country, and the progress of the 
world depend upon the acceptance and adoption of his 
" object " by his hearers. So his speaking cannot be 



204 The Making of an Oration 

cold-blooded and studied. When he is preparing his 
speech is the time for the exercise of such a spirit; but 
in the task of actual speaking, he must " let himself go." 
Then is the time for abandon. Then is the time for him 
to speak with enthusiasm, — with the spontaneousness of 
a fountain bursting from the hillside and dashing down 
to the valley of great waters, because it has the weight 
of conviction behind, urging it on, and the gravitation of 
purpose calling it. 

IS THE NEED OF ORATORY DECLINING? 

Something has already been said upon this question, 
but a few more words may not be out of place. 

We not infrequently hear it remarked that in these 
days of books and newspapers there is no room and no 
need for oratory, — that men read and form their 
opinions from their reading, and do not depend upon 
the spoken address for the impulse that shall give direc- 
tion to their will and its resultant act or course of action. 

Plausible as this statement may seem, we may confi- 
dently appeal to facts for its refutation. From a hundred 
thousand Christian pulpits throughout the world, the 
voice of the preacher of righteousness refutes it every 
Sunday. And these preachers do not speak to empty 
pews. If statistics are to be believed, the attendance on 
the oratory of the pulpit is greater than ever before in 
the history of the world. From every court of justice, 
the voice of the advocate refutes it. From every legis- 



The Delivery of the Oration 205 

lative assembly, and from the halls of congress for 
months every year, the voices of our lawmakers refute it. 
While these words are being written, the political parties 
of our country are preparing for the nomination of can- 
didates for president and for other public officers, and 
already the followers of the various aspirants are heard 
speaking in behalf of their respective leaders. After the 
nominations shall have been made, from every public hall, 
under the open sky, from almost every schoolhouse 
throughout the land, the voice of the political orator will 
rise every day for weary months to refute the assertion. 
Is it conceivable that the shrewd men who are managing 
these " campaigns " would send out these hundreds of 
speakers at a vast expenditure of energy and money, did 
not these men know that votes are to be won through 
presentation of their cause by the living advocate? Is 
is conceivable that Christian churches would establish 
schools for the training of preachers and would pay 
millions for the support of pastors did they not still 
believe that men are to be won through " the foolishness 
of preaching " ? 

So, we may confidently appeal to facts for evidence of 
the truth of the assertion that the occupation of the 
orator is not gone. It is a condition, not a theory, that 
we may depend upon. There seems to be no ground for 
doubt that there is a growing interest, an increasing atten- 
tion to the subject of public speaking in the schools and 
colleges of our country. During the last few years, in 
some portions of the country — particularly west of the 



206 The Making of an Oration 

Alleghany mountains — this revival of interest has been 
quite marked. This fact is an indication of the belief 
among students and school authorities that there is 
always a need of men who can persuade others by the 
power of oratory. So long as men do not see eye to eye, 
or march side by side; so long as reforms are needed; 
so long as laws are to be made and enforced ; so long as 
truth and righteousness need to be brought home to the 
minds and consciences and wills of men; — so long will 
there be a call for the eloquent voice, the strong per- 
sonality, the magnetic presence, the persuasive speech of 
the orator to appeal to men. 



PART V 



I. Speeches for Careful Study 

II. A List of Speeches for Further 
Study 

III. A List of Subjects Suitable for 
Oratorical Treatment 



LIBERTY OR DEATH 

BY 

Patrick Henry 

(Judged from the standpoint of effective oratory, probably no 
man in the history of American eloquence has surpassed, if indeed 
any has equalled, Patrick Henry. He was not trained in the 
schools, but he was endowed with those natural gifts that the 
schools cannot impart, — the gifts of genius that are a law unto 
themselves. The following famous speech, as reported by his 
biographer, was delivered March 23, 1775, in the Second Revolu- 
tionary Convention at Richmond, Virginia. It was in support of 
a resolution that Virginia be "put into a posture of defense." 
An account of the speech and the speaker, showing Henry's man- 
ner and the immediate effect of the speech, will be found in the 
volume on Patrick Henry, in the American Statesmen Series, 
pp. 140-151.) 

Mr. President: No man thinks more highly than I do of 
the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentle- 
men who have just addressed the house. But different men 
often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, 
I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen, 
if, entertaining as I do, opinions of a character very opposite 
to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely and with- 
out reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The question 
before the house is one of awful moment to this country. 
For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question 
of freedom or slavery ; and in proportion to the magnitude of 
the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only 
in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill 
the great responsibility which we hold to God and our coun- 

209 



210 The Making of an Oration 

try. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through 
fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of 
treason toward my country, and an act of disloyalty toward 
the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly 
kings. 

Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illu- 
sions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful 
truth, and listen to the song of that siren, till she transforms 
us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a 
great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed 
to be of the number of those, who, having eyes, see not, 
and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly con- 
cern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever an- 
guish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole 
truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it. 

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided ; and that 
is the lamp of experience. I know no way of judging of the 
future but by the past. And, judging by the past, I wish to 
know what there has been in the conduct of the British min- 
istry for the last ten years, to justify those hopes with which 
men have been pleased to solace themselves and the house? 
Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been 
lately received? Trust it not, Sir. It will prove a snare to 
your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed x with a kiss. 
Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition 
comports with those warlike preparations which cover our 
waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies neces- 
sary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown 
ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled, that force must be 
called in to win back our love ? Let us not deceive ourselves, 
Sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the 
last arguments to which kings resort. I ask gentlemen, Sir, 
what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force 
us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible 
motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter 



Speeches for Careful Study 211 

of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and 
armies? No, Sir, she has none. They are meant for us: 
they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind 
and rivet upon us those chains, which the British ministry 
have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to 
them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying 
that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer 
upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in 
every light of which it is capable ; but it has all been in vain. 
Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What 
terms shall we find, that have not already been exhausted? 
Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves longer. Sir, 
we have done everything, that could be done to avert the 
storm that is now coming on. We have petitioned 2 ; we 
have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated 
ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposi- 
tion to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and parlia- 
ment. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances 
have produced additional violence and insult; our supplica- 
tions have been disregarded ; and we have been spurned, with 
contempt, from the foot of the throne ! In vain, after these 
things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and recon- 
ciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we 
wish to be free — if we mean to preserve inviolate those ines- 
timable privileges for which we have been so long contend- 
ing — if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle 
in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have 
pledged ourselves never to abandon, until the glorious object 
of our contest shall be obtained — we must fight! I repeat 
it, sir, we must fight ! An appeal to arms and to the God of 
Hosts is all that is left us ! 

They tell us, sir, that we are weak ; unable to cope with so 
formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? 
Will it be the next week, or the next year ? Will it be when 



212 The Making of an Oration 

we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard is stationed 
in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution 
and inaction ? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resist- 
ance, by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive 
phantom of hope, until our enemies have bound us hand and 
foot? Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of 
those means which the God of nature hath placed in our 
power. Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of 
liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are 
invincible by any force which our enemy can send against 
us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There 
is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and 
who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The 
battle, sir, is not to the strong 3 alone ; it is to the vigilant, the 
active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we 
were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from 
the contest. There is no retreat, but in submission and slav- 
ery ! Our chains are forged ! Their clanking may be heard 
on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable — and let 
it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come! 

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may 
cry, Peace, peace — but there is no peace. The war is actu- 
ally begun ! The next gale, that sweeps from the north, will 
bring to our ears the clash* of resounding arms! Our 
brethren are already in the field ! Why stand we here idle ? 
What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? 
Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at 
the price of chains and slavery ? Forbid it, Almighty God ! 
I know not wLat course others may take; but as for me, 
give me liberty or give me death ! 

NOTES ON " LIBERTY OR DEATH " 

BY 

PATRICK HENRY 

I. Luke XXII: 47-48. Why are Scriptural allusions so 
effective ? 



Speeches for Careful Study 213 

2. Note how the brevity of these clauses, and the meaning of 
the words as arranged, add to the climacteric effect. 

3. Eccl. IX:u. 

4. Try to substitute some other word for "clash," and see if 
there is any loss of effect. 

5. A very large proportion of the sentences is interrogative. 
Try the effect of changing these sentences to the declarative form. 



FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS 

BY 

Abraham Lincoln 

(Before this address was delivered Lincoln was a compar- 
atively unknown man to the country at large, although he had 
recently been elected president. From that day, however, there 
was no doubt in the minds of the people at large that he was equal 
to the high trust that had been placed in his hands. Thenceforth 
there was no ground for doubt regarding his attitude toward the 
great questions that were agitating the country. His words are 
clear, definite, and positive. The student will find it profitable 
to study this and others of Lincoln's speeches for the clearness 
and cogency of their reasoning, for his precision in the choice of 
words and the construction of sentences, and for the simplicity 
and music of his style. He should also read carefully what 
is said of Lincoln's style in the text.) 

Fellow-Citizens of the United States: 

In compliance with a custom as old as the government 
itself, I appear before you to address you briefly and to take 
in your presence the oath prescribed by the Constitution of 
the United States to be taken by the President " before he 
enters on the execution of his office." 

I do not x consider it necessary at present for me to discuss 
those matters about which there is no present nor especial 
anxiety or excitement. 

Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the 
Southern States that by the accession of a Republican admin- 
istration their property and their peace and personal security 
are to be endangered. There has never been any reasonable 
cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence 

214 



Speeches for Careful Study 215 

to the contrary has all the while existed and been open to their 
inspection. It is found in nearly all the public speeches of 
him who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of 
those speeches when I declare that — 

" I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere 
with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. 
I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no incli- 
nation to do so." 

Those who nominated and elected me did so with full 
knowledge that I had made this and many similar declara- 
tions and had never recanted them ; and more than this, they 
placed in the platform for my acceptance, and as a law to 
themselves and to me, the clear and emphatic resolution 
which I now read: 

"Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights 
of the States, and especially the right of each State to order 
and control its own domestic institutions according to its own 
judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on 
which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric 
depend ; and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force 
of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter under what 
pretext, as among the gravest of crimes." 

I now reiterate these sentiments, and in doing so I only 
press upon the public attention the most conclusive evidence 
of which the case is susceptible, that the property, peace, 
and security of no section are to be in anywise endangered by 
the now incoming administration. I add, too, that all the 
protection which, consistently with the constitution and the 
laws, can be given will be cheerfully given to all the States 
when lawfully demanded, for whatever cause — as cheer- 
fully to one section as to another. 

There is much controversy about the delivering up of 
fugitives from service or labor. The clause I now read is as 
plainly written in the Constitution as any other of its pro- 
visions: 



216 The Making of an Oration 

"No person held to service or labor in one State, under 
the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall in consequence 
of any law or regulation therein be discharged from such 
service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the 
party to whom such service or labor may be due." 

It is scarcely questioned that this provision was intended 
by those who made it for the reclaiming of what we call 
fugitive slaves; and the intention of the lawgiver is the 
law. All members of Congress swear their support to the 
whole Constitution — to this provision as much as to any 
other. To the proposition, then, that slaves, whose cases 
come within the terms of this clause, " shall be delivered up," 
their oaths are unanimous. Now, if they would make the 
effort in good temper, could they not with nearly equal 
unanimity frame and pass a law by means of which to keep 
good that unanimous oath? 

There is some difference of opinion whether this clause 
should be enforced by national or by State authority; but 
surely that difference is not a very material one. If the slave 
is to be surrendered, it can be of but little consequence to 
him or to others by which authority it is done. And should 
anyone, in any case, be content that his oath should be unkept 
on a merely unsubstantial controversy as to how it shall be 
kept? 

Again 2 : In any law upon this subject ought not all the 
safeguards known in civilized and humane jurisprudence to 
be introduced, so that a free man be not in any case surren- 
dered as a slave ? And might it not be well at the same time 
to provide by law for the enforcement of that clause in the 
Constitution which guarantees that "the citizens of each 
State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of 
citizens in the several States " ? 

I take the official oath today with no mental reservations 
and with no purpose to construe the Constitution or the laws 
by any hypercritical rules ; and while I do not choose now to 



Speeches for Careful Study 217 

specify particular acts of Congress as proper to be enforced, 
I do suggest that it will be much safer for all, both in official 
and private stations, to conform to and abide by all those 
acts which stand unrepealed than to violate any of them trust- 
ing to find impunity in having them held to be unconstitutional. 

It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a 
President under our National Constitution. During that 
period fifteen different and greatly distinguished citizens have 
in succession administered the executive branch of the govern- 
ment. They have conducted it through many perils, and 
generally with great success. Yet, with all this scope of pre- 
cedent, I now enter upon the same task for the brief consti- 
tutional term of four years under great and peculiar difficulty. 
A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced, 
is now formidably attempted. 

I hold that in contemplation of universal law and of the 
Constitution the Union of these States is perpetual. 3 Per- 
petuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law 
of all national governments. It is safe to assert that no 
government proper ever had a provision in its organic law for 
its own termination. Continue to execute all the express pro- 
visions of our National Constitution, and the Union will 
endure forever, it being impossible to destroy it except by 
some action not provided for in the instrument itself. 

Again: If the United States be not a government proper, 
but an association of States in the nature of a contract merely, 
can it, as a contract, be peaceably unmade by less than all the 
parties who made it? One party to a contract may violate 
it — break it so to speak — but does it not require all to 
lawfully rescind it? 

Descending from these general principles, we find the 
proposition that in legal contemplation the Union is perpetual, 
confirmed by the history of the Union itself. The Union is 
much older than the Constitution. It was formed, in fact, 
by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured and 



218 The Making of an Oration 

continued by the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was 
further matured, and the faith of the then thirteen States 
expressly plighted and engaged that it should be perpetual, 
by the Articles of Confederation in 1778. And finally, in 
1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining and establish- 
ing the Constitution was " to form a more perfect Union." 

But if destruction of the Union by one or by a part only 
of the States be lawfully possible, the Union is less perfect 
than before the Constitution, having lost the vital element of 
perpetuity. 

It follows from these views that no State upon its own 
mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union ; that resolves 
and ordinances to that effect are legally void, and that acts 
of violence within any State or States against the authority 
are insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to circum- 
stances. 

I therefore consider that in view of the Constitution and 
the laws the Union is unbroken, and to the extent of my 
ability, I shall take care, as the Constitution still expressly 
enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully 
executed in all the States. Doing this I deem to be only a 
simple duty on my part, and I shall perform it so far as 
practicable unless my rightful masters, the American people, 
shall withhold the requisite means or in some authoritative 
manner direct the contrary. I trust this will not be regarded 
as a menace, but only as the declared purpose of the Union 
that it will constitutionally defend and maintain itself. 

In doing this there needs to be no bloodshed or violence, 
and there shall 4 be none unless it be forced upon the national 
authority. The power confided to me will be used to hold, 
occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the 
government and to collect the duties and imposts ; but beyond 
what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no 
invasion, no using of force against or among the people any- 
where. Where hostility to the United States in any interior 



Speeches for Careful Study 219 

locality shall be so great and universal as shall prevent com- 
petent resident citizens from holding the Federal offices, there 
will be no attempt to force obnoxious strangers among the 
people for that object. While the strict legal right may 
exist in the government to enforce the exercise of these 
offices, the attempt to do so would be so irritating and so 
nearly impracticable withal that I deem it better to forego 
for the time the uses of such offices. 

The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be furnished in 
all parts of the Union. So far as possible the people every- 
where shall have that sense of perfect security which is 
favorable to calm thought and reflection. The course here 
indicated will be followed unless current events and experience 
shall show a modification or change to be proper, and in every 
case and exigency my best discretion will be exercised, ac- 
cording to circumstances actually existing and with a view 
and a hope of a peaceful solution of the national troubles 
and the restoration of fraternal sympathies and affections. 

That there are persons in one section or another who seek 
to destroy the Union at all events and are glad of any pre- 
text to do it, I will neither affirm nor deny ; but if there be such, 
I need address no word to them. To those, however, who 
really love the Union may I not speak? 

Before entering upon so grave a matter as the destruc- 
tion of our national fabric, with all its benefits, its memories, 
and its hopes, would it not be wise to ascertain precisely why 
we do it? Will you hazard so desperate a step while there 
is any possibility that any portion of the ills you fly from have 
no real existence? Will you, while the certain ills you fly 
to are greater than all the real ones you fly from, will you 
risk the commission of so fearful a mistake? 

All profess to be content in the Union if all constitutional 
rights can be maintained. Is it true, then, that any right 
plainly written in the Constitution has been denied? I think 
not. Happily, the human mind is so constituted that no party 



220 The Making of an Oration 

can reach to the audacity of doing this. Think, if you can, 
of a single instance in which a plainly written provision of 
the Constitution has ever been denied. If by the mere force 
of numbers a majority should deprive a minority of any 
clearly written constitutional right, it might in a moral point 
of view justify revolution; certainly would if such a right 
were a vital one. But such is not our case. All the vital 
rights of minorities and of individuals are so plainly assured 
to them by affirmations and negations, guarantees and pro- 
hibitions, in the Constitution, that controversies never arise 
concerning them. But no organic law can ever be framed 
with a provision specifically applicable to every question which 
may occur in practical administration. No foresight can 
anticipate nor any document of reasonable length contain 
express provisions for all possible questions. Shall fugitives 
from labor be surrendered by national or by State authority ? 
The Constitution does not expressly say: May Congress 
prohibit slavery in the territories ? The Constitution does not 
expressly say: Must Congress protect slavery in the terri- 
tories? The Constitution does not expressly say. 

From questions of this class spring all our constitutional 
controversies, and we divide upon them into majorities and 
minorities. If the minorities will not acquiesce, the majority 
must, or the government must cease. There is no alternative, 
for continuing the government is acquiescence upon one side 
or the other. If a minority 5 in such case will secede rather 
than acquiesce, they make a precedent which in turn will 
divide and ruin them, for a minority of their own will secede 
from them whenever a majority refuses to be controlled by 
such minority. For instance, why may not any portion of a 
new confederacy a year or two hence arbitrarily secede 
again, precisely as portions of the present Union now claim 
to secede from it? All who cherish disunion sentiments are 
now being educated to the exact temper of doing this. 



Speeches for Careful Study 221 

Is there such perfect identity of interests among the States 
to compose a new union as to produce harmony only and 
prevent renewed secession? 

Plainly the central idea of secession is the essence of 
anarchy. A majority held in restraint by constitutional 
checks and limitations, and always changing easily with 
deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is 
the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects 
it does of necessity fly to anarchy or to despotism. Unanimity 
is impossible. The rule of a minority, as a permanent ar- 
rangement, is wholly inadmissible; so that, rejecting the 
majority principle, anarchy or despotism in some form is all 
that is left. 

I do not forget the position assumed by some that consti- 
tutional questions are to be decided by the Supreme Court, 
nor do I deny that such decisions in any case are binding 
upon the parties to a suit as to the object of that suit, while 
they are also entitled to very high respect and consideration 
in all parallel cases by all other departments of the Govern- 
ment. And while it is obviously possible that such decision 
may be erroneous in any given case, still the evil effect fol- 
lowing it, being limited to that particular case, with the 
chance that it may be overruled and never become a prece- 
dent for other cases, can better be borne than could the evils 
of a different practice. At the same time, the candid citizen 
must confess that if the policy of the Government upon vital 
questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed 
by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are in 
ordinary litigation between parties in personal actions the 
people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that 
extent practically resigned their Government into the hands 
of that eminent tribunal. Nor is there in this view any 
assault upon the court or the judges. It is a duty from which 
they may not shrink to decide cases properly brought before 



222 The Making of an Oration 

them, and it is no fault of theirs if others seek to turn their 
decisions to political purposes. 

One section of our country believes slavery is right and 
ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong 
and ought not to be extended. This is the only substantial dis- 
pute. The fugitive-slave clause of the Constitution and the 
law for the suppression of the foreign slave trade are each 
as well enforced, perhaps, as any law can ever be in a com- 
munity where the moral sense of the people imperfectly sup- 
ports the law itself. The great body of the people abide by 
the dry legal obligation in both cases, and a few break over 
in each. This, I think, cannot be perfectly cured, and it 
would be worse in both cases after the separation of the sec- 
tions than before. The foreign slave trade, now imperfectly 
suppressed, would be ultimately revived without restriction 
in one section, while fugitive slaves, now only partially sur- 
rendered, would not be surrendered at all by the other. 

Physically speaking, we cannot separate. We cannot 
remove our respective sections from each other nor build 
an impassable wall between them. A husband and wife may 
be divorced and go out of the presence and beyond the reach 
of each other, but the different parts of our country cannot 
do this. They cannot but remain face to face, and inter- 
course, either amicable or hostile, must continue between 
them. Is it possible, then, to make that intercourse more ad- 
vantageous or more satisfactory after separation than before? 
Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws? 
Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than 
laws can among friends? Suppose you go to war, you can 
not fight always; and when, after much loss on both sides 
and no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical old 
questions, as to terms of intercourse, are again upon you. 

This country with its institutions belongs to the people 
who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the 



Speeches for Careful Study 223 

existing government, they can exercise their constitutional 
right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember 
or overthrow it. I cannot be ignorant of the fact that many 
worthy and patriotic citizens are desirous of having the Na- 
tional Constitution amended. While I make no recommenda- 
tions of amendments, I fully recognize the rightful authority 
of the people over the whole subject, to be exercised in either 
of the modes prescribed in the instrument itself; and I should, 
under existing circumstances, favor rather than oppose a fair 
opportunity being afforded the people to act upon it. I will 
venture to add that to me the convention mode seems pref- 
erable, in that it allows amendments to originate with the 
people themselves, instead of only permitting them to take or 
reject propositions originated by others, not especially chosen 
for the purpose, and which might not be precisely such as they 
would wish to either accept or refuse. I understand a pro- 
posed amendment to the Constitution — which amendment, 
however, I have not seen — has passed Congress, to the effect 
that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the 
domestic institutions of the States, including that of persons 
held to service. To avoid misconstruction of what I have 
said, I depart from my purpose not to speak of particular 
amendments so far as to say that, holding such a provision 
now to be implied constitutional law, I have no objection to 
its being made express and irrevocable. 

The Chief Magistrate derives all his authority from the 
people, and they have conferred none upon him to fix terms 
for the separation of the States. The people themselves can 
do this also if they choose, but the Executive as such has 
nothing to do with it. His duty is to administer the present 
Government as it came to his hands and transmit it unimpaired 
by him to his successor. 

Why 6 should there not be a patient confidence in the ulti- 
mate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope 



224 The Making of an Oration 

in the world? In our present differences, is either party 
without faith of being in the right? If the Almighty Ruler 
of Nations, with His eternal truth and justice, be on your 
side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and 
that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this great 
tribunal of the American people. 

By the frame of the Government under which we live 
this same people have wisely given their public servants but 
little power for mischief, and have with equal wisdom pro- 
vided for the return of that little to their own hands at very 
short intervals. While the people retain their virtue and 
vigilance, no Administration by any extreme of wickedness 
and folly can very seriously injure the Government in the 
short space of four years. 

My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon 
this whole subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking 
time. If there be an object to hurry any one of you in hot 
haste to a step which you would never take deliberately, that 
object will be frustrated by taking time; but no good object 
can be frustrated by it. Such of you as are now dissatisfied 
still have the old Constitution unimpaired, and, on the sen- 
sitive point, the laws of your own framing under it; while 
the new Administration will have no immediate power, if 
it would, to change either. If it were admitted that you who 
are dissatisfied hold the right side in the dispute, there is still 
no single good reason for precipitate action. Intelligence, 
patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who 
has never yet forsaken this favored land are still competent 
to adjust in the best way our present difficulty. 

In your hands, my dissatisfied 7 fellow-countrymen, and 
not in mine is the momentous issue of civil war. The Govern- 
ment will not assail you. You can have no conflict without 
being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered 
in heaven to destroy the Government, while / shall have the 
most solemn one to " preserve, protect, and defend it." 



Speeches for Careful Study 225 

I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We 
must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it 
must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of 
memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave 
to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, 
will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, 
as surely they will be by the better angels of our nature. 

NOTES ON THE 

"FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS," 

BY 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

1. Observe how definitely at the outset the speaker limits the 
range of his address. 

2. The steps of the points discussed should be noted. Make an 
outline naming the steps in order. 

3. This is the same interpretation of the nature of the Consti- 
tution advocated by Webster. 

4. Observe the skill, and yet kindness, with which he places 
responsibility for bloodshed if it should come. 

5. Could any argument be homelier or more conclusive upon 
this question? 

6. The student should note the conciliatory attitude of the 
whole speech, especially from this point onward — nothing to 
offend, everything to appeal to the patriotism and best feelings of 
the people. 

7. As first written the final paragraph read as follows: "My 
dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, you cannot forbear the assault 
upon it; I cannot shrink from the defense of it. With you, and 
not with me, is the solemn question of, Shall it be peace or a 
sword?" Secretary Seward, the scholar in the cabinet, when 
the document was submitted to him, suggested that there should 
be " some words of affection — some of calm and cheerful con- 
fidence," and proposed the following : " I close. We are not, we 
must not be, aliens or enemies, but fellow-countrymen and breth- 
ren. Although passion has strained our bonds of affection too 
hardly, they must not, I am sure they will not, be broken. The 
mystic chords which, proceeding from so many battlefields and 
so many patriot graves, pass through all the hearts and all the 
hearths in this broad continent of ours, will yet again harmonize 
in their ancient music when breathed upon by the guardian angel 
of the nation." How does the final form improve on both 
Seward's sentence and Lincoln's own first draft — both in felicity 
of words, in precision of phrase, in suggestiveness of association, 
and in rhythm ? 



SPEECH AT GETTYSBURG 

BY 

Abraham Lincoln * 

Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth 
on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and ded- 
icated to the proposition that all men are created equal. 

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether 
that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, 
can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that 
war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as 
a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that 
that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper 
that we should do this. 

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot 
consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, 
living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far 
above our poor power to add or detract. The world will 
little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can 
never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, 
rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which 
they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It 
is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remain- 
ing before us, — that from these honored dead we take 
increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last 
full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that 
these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, 
under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that 
government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall 
not perish from the earth. 

* The foregoing text is, in its wording, a copy of the speech, 
made by Mr. Lincoln himself, for a fair given in Baltimore for 
tile benefit of soldiers and sailors. 

226 



SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS 

BY 

Abraham Lincoln 

Fellow-Countrymen : At this second appearing to take 
the oath of the Presidential office there is less occasion for 
an extended address than there was at the first. Then a 
statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued 
seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four 
years, during which public declarations have been constantly 
called forth on every point and phase of the great contest 
which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies 
of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The 
progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, 
is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, 
reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high 
hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. 

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all 
thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. 
All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural 
address was being delivered from this place, devoted to 
saving the Union without war, the insurgent agents were in 
the city seeking to destroy it without war — seeking to dis- 
solve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both 
parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war 
rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept 
war rather than let it perish, and the war came. 

One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, 
not distributed generally over the whole Union, but localized 
in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar 

227 



228 The Making of an Oration 

and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was some- 
how the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and 
extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents 
would rend the Union even by war, while the Government 
claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial 
enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the 
magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. 
Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease 
with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each 
looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental 
and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the 
same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It 
may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just 
God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of 
other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. 
The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither 
has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own pur- 
poses. " Woe unto the world because of offenses, but woe 
to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall sup- 
pose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in 
the Providence of God, must needs come, but which, having 
continued through His appointed time, He now wills to 
remove, and that He now gives to both North and South this 
terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, 
shall we discern therein any departure from those divine 
attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe 
to him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this 
mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God 
wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bonds- 
man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall 
be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash 
shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said 
three thousand years ago, so still it must be said " the judg- 
ments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." 



Speeches for Careful Study 229 

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firm- 
ness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us 
strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's 
wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and 
for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and 
cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with 
all nations. 



UNDER THE FLAG 

BY 

Wendell Phillips 

(The following speech was delivered by Mr. Phillips In the 
Music Hall, Boston, April 21, 1861, just after the outbreak of the 
Civil War by the attack upon Fort Sumter. It was delivered 
before the Twenty-eighth Congregational Society. Previously 
Mr. Phillips, in his ardent abolitionism, had expressed the idea 
that the Constitution of the United States, because it was the 
Constitution of a government that recognized slavery, laid no 
obligations upon any man to obey it. When, however, the war 
was actually begun, he supported the government, because he 
interpreted the war as destined to do away with American 
slavery. The student should study this and other orations of 
Wendell Phillips, as among the best examples of American elo- 
quence. Phillips was preeminently an agitator and reformer. 
As such he was, of course, an extremist. Sentence structure, 
choice of words, directness, picturesqueness, intensity of convic- 
tion, richness of allusion and illustration, epigrammatic assertion, — 
all these and other qualities that help to illumine and give force 
to the thought are found in abundance in these addresses.) 

" Therefore thus saith the Lord : Ye have not hearkened unto 
me in proclaiming liberty everyone to his brother, and every man 
to his neighbor; behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the 
Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine." — 
Jer. XXXIV: 17. 

Many times this winter, here and elsewhere, I have coun- 
seled peace, — urged, as well as I know how, the expediency 
of acknowledging a Southern Confederacy, and the peaceful 
separation of these thirty- four states. One of the journals 
announces to you that I come here this morning to retract 
those opinions. No, not one of them ! [Applause.] I need 
them all, — -every word I have spoken this winter, — every 

230 






Speeches for Careful Study 231 

act of twenty-five years of my life, to make the welcome I 
give this war hearty and hot. Civil war is a momentous evil. 
It needs the soundest, most solemn justification. I rejoice 
before God today for every word that I have spoken counsel- 
ing peace; but I rejoice also with an especially profound 
gratitude, that now, the first time in my anti-slavery life, I 
speak under the stars and stripes, and welcome the tread of 
Massachusetts men marshalled for war. [Enthusiastic cheer- 
ing.] No matter what the past has been or said; today the 
slave asks God for a sight of this banner, and counts it the 
pledge of his redemption. [Applause.] Hitherto it may have 
meant what you thought, or what I did; today it represents 
sovereignty and justice. [Renewed applause.] The only 
mistake that I have made, was in supposing Massachusetts 
wholly choked with cottondust and cankered with gold. [Loud 
cheering.] The South thought her patience and generous 
willingness for peace were cowardice; today shows the mis- 
take. She has been sleeping on her arms 1 since '83, and the 
first cannonshot brings her to her feet with the warcry of 
the Revolution on her lips. [Loud cheers.] Any man who 
loves either liberty or manhood must rejoice at such an 
hour. [Applause.] 

Let me tell you the path by which I at least have trod my 
way up to this conclusion. I do not acknowledge the motto, 
in its full significance, " Our country, right or wrong." If 
you let it trespass on the domain of morals, it is knavish. 
But there is a full, broad sphere for loyalty; and no warcry 
ever stirred a generous people that had not in it much of 
truth and right. It is sublime, this rally of a great people to 
the defense of what they think their national honor ! " A noble 
and puissant nation rousing herself like a strong man from 
sleep, and shaking her invincible locks." Just now we saw 
her " reposing, peaceful and motionless ; but at the call of 
patriotism, she ruffles, as it were, her swelling plumage, col- 



232 The Making of an Oration 

lects her scattered elements of strength, and awakens her 
dormant thunders." 

But how do we justify this last appeal to the God of bat- 
tles? Let me tell you how I do. I have always believed in 
the sincerity of Abraham Lincoln. You have heard me ex- 
press my confidence in it every time I have spoken from this 
desk. I only doubted sometimes whether he were really the 
head of the government. Today he is at any rate commander- 
in-chief. 

The delay in the action of government has doubtless been 
necessity, but policy also. Traitors within and without made 
it hesitate to move till it had tried the machine of govern- 
ment just given it. But delay was wise, as it matured a public 
opinion definite, decisive, and ready to keep step to the music 
of the government march. The very postponement of another 
session of Congress till July 4th plainly invites discussion, — 
evidently contemplates the ripening of public opinion in the 
the interval. Fairly to examine public affairs, and prepare a 
community wise to cooperate with the government, is the 
duty of every pulpit and every press. 

Plain words, therefore, now, before the nation goes mad 
with excitement, is every man's duty. Every public meeting 
in Athens was opened with a curse on any one who should 
not speak what he really thought. " I have never defiled my 
conscience from fear or favor to my superiors," was part of 
the oath every Egyptian soul was supposed to utter in the 
Judgment-Hall of Osiris, 2 before admission to heaven. Let 
us show today a Christian spirit as sincere and fearless. No 
mobs in this hour of victory, to silence those whom events 
have not converted. We are strong enough to tolerate dissent. 
That flag which floats over press and mansion at the bidding 
of a mob, disgraces both victor and victim. 

All winter long, I have acted with that party which cried 
for peace. The anti-slavery enterprise to which I belong 



Speeches for Careful Study 233 

started with peace written on its banner. We imagined that 
the age of bullets was over ; that the age of ideas had come ; 
that thirty millions of people were able to take a great ques- 
tion, and decide it by the conflict of opinions; that without 
letting the ship of state founder, we could lift four millions 
of men into Liberty and Justice. We thought that if your 
statesmen would throw away personal ambition and party 
watchwords, and devote themselves to the great issue, this 
might be accomplished. To a certain extent it has been. 
The North has answered to the call. Year after year, event 
after event, has indicated the rising education of the people, — 
the readiness for a higher moral life, the calm, self-poised 
confidence in our own convictions that patiently waits — like 
master for a pupil — for a neighbor's conversion. The North 
has responded to the call of that peaceful, moral, intellectual 
agitation which the antislavery idea has initiated. Our mis- 
take, if any, has been that we counted too much on the intelli- 
gence of the masses, on the honesty and wisdom of statesmen 
as a class. Perhaps we did not give weight enough to the 
fact we saw, that this nation is made up of different ages; 
not homogeneous, but a mixed mass of different centuries. 
The North 3 thinks, — can appreciate argument, — is the nine- 
teenth century, — hardly any struggle left in it but that be- 
tween the working class and the money kings. The South 
dreams, — it is the thirteenth and fourteenth century, — baron 
and serf, — noble and slave. Jack Cade 4 and Wat Tyler loom 
over its horizon, and the serf, rising, calls for another 
Thierry 5 to record his struggle. There the fagot still burns 
which the Doctors 6 of the Sorbonne called, ages ago, " the 
best light to guide the erring." There men are tortured for 
opinions, the only punishment the Jesuits were willing their 
pupils should look on. This is, perhaps, too flattering a pic- 
ture of the South. Better call her, as Sumner does, "the 
Barbarous States." Our struggle, therefore, is between bar- 



234 The Making of an Oration 

barism and civilization. Such can only be settled by arms. 
[Prolonged cheering.] The government has waited until 
its best friends almost suspected its courage or its integrity; 
but the cannon shot against Fort Sumter has opened the only 
door of this hour. There were but two. One was compromise ; 
the other was battle. The integrity of the North closed the 
first; the generous forbearance of nineteen states closed the 
other. The South opened this with cannon shot, and Lincoln 
shows himself at the door. [Prolonged and enthusiastic 
cheering.] The war, then, is not aggressive, but in self- 
defense, and Washington has become the Thermopylae of 
Liberty and Justice. [Applause.] Rather than surrender 
that capital, cover every square foot of it with a living body 
[loud cheers] ; crowd it with a million men, and empty every 
bank vault at the North to pay the cost. [Renewed cheering.] 
Teach the world once for all, that North America belongs to 
the Stars and Stripes, and under them no man shall wear a 
chain. [Enthusiastic cheering.] In the whole of this con- 
flict, I have looked only at Liberty, — only at the slave. Perry 
entered the Battle of the Lakes with " Do n't give up the 
ship ! " floating from the masthead of the Lawrence. When 
with his fighting flag he left her crippled, heading north, 
and, mounting the deck of the Niagara, turned her bows due 
west, he did all for one and the same purpose, — to rake the 
decks of the foe. Steer north or west, acknowledge secession 
or cannonade it, I care not which ; but " Proclaim 7 liberty 
throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." 
[Loud cheers.] 

I said, civil war needs momentous and solemn justification. 
Europe, the world, may claim of us, that, before we blot the 
nineteenth century by an appeal to arms, we shall exhaust 
every concession, try every means to keep the peace; other- 
wise, an appeal to the God of battles is an insult to the civi- 
lization of our age; it is a confession that our culture and 



Speeches for Careful Study 235 

our religion are superficial, if not a failure. I think that the 
history of the nation and of the government both is an ample 
justification to our own times and to history for this appeal 
to arms. I think the South is all wrong, and the administra- 
tion is all right. [Prolonged cheering.] Let me tell you 
why. For thirty years the North has exhausted conciliation 
and compromise. They have tried every expedient, they have 
relinquished every right, they have sacrificed every interest, 
they have smothered keen sensibility to national honor, and 
Northern weight and supremacy in the Union ; have forgotten 
that they were the majority in numbers and in wealth, in 
education and strength; have left the helm of government 
and the dictation of policy to the Southern States. For all 
this, the conflict waxed closer and hotter. The administra- 
tion which preceded this was full of traitors and thieves. 
It allowed the arms, ships, money, military stores of the 
North to be stolen with impunity. Mr. Lincoln took office, 
robbed of all the means to defend the constitutional rights of 
the government. He offered to withdraw from the walls of 
Sumter everything but the flag. He allowed secession to 
surround it with the strongest forts which military science 
could build. The North offered to meet in convention her 
sister states, and arrange the terms of peaceful separation. 
Strength and right yielded everything, — they folded their 
hands, waited the returning reason of the mad insurgents. 
Week after week elapsed, month after month went by, wait- 
ing for the sober second-thought of the two millions and a 
half of people. The world saw the sublime sight of nineteen 
millions of wealthy, powerful, united citizens, allowing their 
flag to be insulted, their rights assailed, their sovereignty 
defied and broken in pieces, and yet waiting, with patient, 
brotherly, magnanimous kindness, until insurrection, having 
spent its fury, should reach out its hand for a peaceful ar- 
rangement. Men began to call it cowardice, on the one hand ; 



236 The Making of an Oration 

and we, who watched closely the crisis, feared that this effort 
to be magnanimous would demoralize the conscience and 
the courage of the North. We were afraid that, as the hour 
went by, the virtue of the people, white-hot as it stood on 
the fourth day of March, would be cooled by the tempta- 
tions, by the suspense, by the want and suffering which it 
was feared would stalk from the Atlantic to the valley of 
the Mississippi. We were afraid the government would wait 
too long, and find at last, that instead of a united people, 
they were deserted, and left alone to meet the foe. All this 
time, the South knew, recognized, by her own knowledge of 
constitutional questions, that the government could not ad- 
vance one inch towards acknowledging secession ; that when 
Abraham Lincoln swore to support the Constitution and the 
laws of the United States, he was bound to die under the 
flag on Fort Sumter, if necessary. [Loud applause.] They 
knew, therefore, that the call on the administration to acknowl- 
edge the commissioners of the Confederacy was a delusion 
and a swindle. I know the whole argument for secession. 
Up to a certain extent, I accede to it. But no administration 
that is not traitor can acknowledge secession until we are 
hopelessly beaten in fair fight. [Cheers.] The right of a 
state to secede, under the Constitution of the United States, — 
it is an absurdity; and Abraham Lincoln knows nothing, 
has a right to know nothing, but the Constitution of the 
United States. [Loud cheers.] The right of a state to 
secede, as revolutionary right, is undeniable; but it is the 
nation which is to recognize that; and the nation offered, at 
the suggestion of Kentucky, to meet the question in full 
convention. The offer was declined. The government and 
the nation, therefore, are all right. [Applause.] They are 
right on constitutional law; they are right on the principles 
of the Declaration of Independence. [Cheers.] 

Let me explain this more fully, for this reason ; because — 



Speeches for Careful Study 237 

and I thank God for it, every American should be proud of 
it — you cannot maintain a war in the United States of 
America against a constitutional or a revolutionary right. 
The people of these States have too large brains and too many 
ideas to fight blindly, — to lock horns like a couple of beasts 
in the sight of the world. [Applause.] Cannon think in this 
nineteenth century ; and you must put the North in the right, 
— wholly, undeniably, inside of the Constitution and out of 
it, — before you can justify her in the face of the world; be- 
fore you can pour Massachusetts like an avalanche through 
the streets of Baltimore, [£reat cheering,] and carry Lex- 
ington on the 19th of April 8 south of Mason and Dixon's 
line. [Renewed cheering.] Let us take an honest pride in 
the fact that our Sixth Regiment made a way for itself 
through Baltimore, 9 and were the first to reach the threatened 
Capital. In this war Massachusetts has a right to be the 
first in the field. 

I said I knew the whole argument for secession. Very 
briefly let me state the points. No government provides for 
its own death; therefore there can be no constitutional right 
to secede. But there is a revolutionary right. The Declara- 
tion of Independence establishes what the heart of every 
American acknowledges, that the people — mark you, the 
people, — have always an inherent, paramount, inalienable 
right to change their governments, whenever they think — 
whenever they think — that it will minister to their happiness. 
That is a revolutionary right. Now, how did South Carolina 
and Massachusetts come into the Union? They came into 
it by a convention representing the people. South Carolina 
alleges that she has gone out by convention. So far, right. 
She says that when the people take the state rightfully out of 
the Union, the right to forts and national property goes with 
it. Granted. She says, also, that it is no matter that we 
bought Louisiana of France, and Florida of Spain. No bar- 



238 The Making of an Oration 

gain made, no money paid, betwixt us and France or Spain, 
could rob Florida or Louisiana of her right to remodel her 
government whenever the people found it would be for their 
happiness. So far, right. The people, — mark you ! South 
Carolina presents herself to the administration at Washing- 
ton, and says, " There is a vote of my convention, that I go 
out of the Union." " I cannot see you," says Abraham Lin- 
coln. [Loud cheers.] " As president, I have no eyes but 
constitutional eyes; I cannot see you." [Renewed cheers.] 
He could only say, like Speaker Lenthal before Charles the 
First, " I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak but 
as the Constitution is pleased to direct me, whose servant I 
am." He was right. But Madison said, Hamilton said, the 
Fathers said, in 1789, " No man but an enemy of liberty will 
ever stand on technicalities and forms, when the essence is 
in question." Abraham Lincoln could not see the commission- 
ers of South Carolina, but the North could ; the nation could ; 
and the nation responded, "If you want a constitutional se- 
cession, such as you claim, but which I repudiate, I will waive 
forms; let us meet in convention, and we will arrange it." 
[Applause.] Surely, while one claims a right within the 
Constitution, he may, without dishonor or inconsistency, 
meet in convention, even if finally refusing to be bound by 
it. To decline doing so is only evidence of intention to pro- 
voke war. Everything under that instrument is peace. 
Everything under that instrument may be changed by a na- 
tional convention. The South says, " No ! " She says, " If 
you don't allow me the constitutional right, I claim the revo- 
lutionary right." The North responds, "When you have 
torn the Constitution into fragments, I recognize the right 
of the people of South Carolina to model their government. 
Yes, I recognize the right of the three hundred and eighty- 
four thousand white men, and four hundred and eighty-four 
thousand black men to model their Constitution. Show me the 



Speeches for Careful Study 239 

one that they have adopted, and I will recognize the revolu- 
tion. [Cheers.] But the moment you tread outside of the 
Constitution, the black man is not 10 " three-fifths of a man, — 
he is a whole one." [Loud cheering.] Yes, the South has 
the right of revolution ; the South has a right to model her 
government; and the moment she shows us four million of 
black votes thrown even against it, and balanced by five 
million of other votes, I will acknowledge the Declaration 
of Independence is complied with [loud applause], — that the 
people south of Mason and Dixon's line have'remodeled their 
government to suit themselves; and our function is only to 
recognize it. 

Further than this, we should have the right to remind them, 
in the words of our Declaration of Independence, that " gov- 
ernments long established are not to be changed for light and 
transient causes," and that, so long as government fulfills 
the purposes for which it was made, — the liberty and happi- 
ness of the people, — no one section has the right capriciously 
to make changes which destroy joint interests, advantages 
bought by common toil and sacrifice, and which division 
necessarily destroys. Indeed, we should have the right to 
remind them that no faction, in what has been recognized 
as one nation, can claim, by any law, the right of revolution 
to set up or to preserve a system which the common con- 
science of mankind stamps as wicked and infamous. The 
law of nations is only another name for the common sense 
and average conscience of mankind. It does not allow itself, 
like a county court, to be hoodwinked by parchments or con- 
fused by technicalities. In its vocabulary, the right of revo- 
lution means the right of the people to protect themselves, 
not the privilege of tyrants to tread under foot good laws, 
and claim the world's sympathy in riveting weakened chains. 

I say the North had a right to assume these positions. She 
did not. She had a right to ignore revolution until these 



240 The Making of an Oration 

conditions were complied with ; but she did not. She waived 
it. In obedience to the advice of Madison, to the long history 
of her country's forbearance, to the magnanimity of nineteen 
States, she waited ; she advised the government to wait. Mr. 
Lincoln, in his inaugural, indicated that this would be the 
wise course. Mr. Seward hinted it in his speech in New 
York. The London Times bade us remember the useless 
war of 1776, and take warning against resisting the princi- 
ples of popular sovereignty. The Tribune, whose unflinching 
fidelity and matchless ability make it in this fight " the white 
plume of Navarre," has again and again avowed its readiness 
to waive forms and go into convention. We have waited. 
We said, " Anything for peace." We obeyed the magnani- 
mous statesmanship of John Quincy Adams. Let me read 
you his advice, given at the " Jubilee of the Constitution," to 
the New York Historical Society, in the year 1839. He says, 
recognizing this right of the people of a State, — mark you, 
not a State : the Constitution in this matter knows no States ; 
the right of revolution knows no States; it knows only the 
people. Mr. Adams says: — 

" The people of each State in the Union have a right to 
secede from the confederated Union itself. 

" Thus stands the right. But the indissoluble link of union 
between the people of the several States of this confederated 
nation is, after all, not in the right, but in the heart. 

"If the day should ever come (may heaven avert it!) 
when the affections of the people of these States shall be 
alienated from each other, when the fraternal spirit shall 
give way to cold indifference, or collisions of interest shall 
fester into hatred, the bands of political association will not 
long hold together parties no longer attracted by the mag- 
netism of conciliated interests and kindly sympathies; and 
far better will it be for the people of the disunited States 
to part in friendship from each other, than to be held together 



Speeches for Careful Study 241 

by constraint. Then will be the time for reverting to the 
precedents which occurred at the formation and adoption of 
the Constitution, to form again a more perfect union, by 
dissolving that which could no longer bind ; and to leave the 
separated parts to be reunited by the law of political gravi- 
tation to the center." 

The North said " Amen " to every word of it. They 
waited. They begged the States to meet them. They were 
silent when the cannonshot pierced the flag of the Star of the 
West. They said " Amen " when the government offered to 
let nothing but the bunting cover Fort Sumter. They said 
" Amen " when Lincoln stood alone, without arms, in a de- 
fenseless capital, and trusted himself to the loyalty and for- 
bearance of thirty-four States. 

The South, if the truth be told, cannot wait. Like all 
usurpers, they dare not give time for the people to criticise 
their power. War and tumult must conceal the irregularity 
of their civil course, and smother discontent and criticism at 
the same time. Besides, bankruptcy at home can live out its 
short term of possible existence only by conquest on land and 
piracy at sea. And, further, only by war, by appeal to popular 
frenzy, can they hope to delude the border states to join them. 
War is the breath of their life. 

Today, therefore, the question is, by the voice of the South, 
" Shall Washington or Montgomery own the continent ? " 
And the North says, " From the Gulf to the Pole, the Stars 
and Stripes shall atone to four millions of negroes whom we 
have forgotten for seventy years; and, before you break the 
Union, we will see that justice is done to the slave." [Enthu- 
siastic and long-continued cheers.] 

There is only one thing those cannonshot in the harbor of 
Charleston settled, — that there never can be a compromise. 
[Loud applause.] We Abolitionists have doubted whether 
this Union really meant justice and liberty. We have doubted 



242 The Making of an Oration 

the intention of nineteen millions of people. They have 
said, in answer to our criticism: "We believe that the 
Fathers meant to establish justice. We believe that there 
are hidden in the armory of the Constitution weapons strong 
enough to secure it. We are willing yet to try the experi- 
ment. Grant us time." We have doubted, derided the pre- 
tence, as we supposed. During these long and weary weeks 
we have waited to hear the Northern conscience assert its 
purpose. It comes at last. [An impressive pause.] Massa- 
chusetts blood has consecrated the pavements of Baltimore, 
and these stones are now too sacred to be trodden by slaves. 
[Loud cheers.] 

You and I owe it to these young martyrs, you and I owe 
it, that their blood shall be the seed of no mere empty 
triumph, but that the negro shall teach his children to bless 
them for centuries to come. [Applause.] When Massa- 
chusetts goes down to that Carolina fort to put the Stars and 
Stripes again over its blackened walls [enthusiasm], she will 
sweep from its neighborhood every institution which hazards 
their ever bowing again to the palmette. [Loud cheers.] 
All of you may not mean it now. Our fathers did not think 
in 1775 of the Declaration of Independence. The Long 
Parliament never thought of the scaffold of Charles the First, 
when they entered on the struggle; but having begun, they 
made thorough work. [Cheers.] It is an attribute of the 
Yankee blood, — slow to fight, and fight once. [Renewed 
cheers.] It was a holy war, that for Independence; this is 
a holier and the last, — that for liberty. [Loud applause.] 

I hear a great deal about constitutional liberty. The 
mouths of Concord and Lexington guns have room only for 
one word, and that is liberty. You might as well ask 
Niagara to chant the Chicago platform, as to say how far 
war shall go. War and Niagara thunder to a music of their 
own. God alone can launch the lightnings, that they may 



Speeches for Careful Study 243 

go and say, Here we are. The thunderbolts of His throne 
always abase the proud, lift up the lowly, and execute justice 
between man and man. 

Now let me turn one moment to another consideration. 
What should the government do ? I said " thorough " should 
be its maxim. When we fight, we are fighting for justice 
and an idea. A short war and a rigid one is the maxim. Ten 
thousand men in Washington ! it is only a bloody fight. Five 
hundred thousand men in Washington, and none dare come 
there but from the North. [Loud cheers.] Occupy St. 
Louis with the millions of the West, and say to Missouri, 
" You cannot go out ! " [Applause.] Cover Maryland with 
a million of the friends of the administration, and say : " We 
must have our capital within reach. [Cheers.] If you need 
compensation for slaves taken from you in the convulsion of 
battle, here it is. [Cheers.] Government is engaged in the 
fearful struggle to show that '89 xl meant justice, and there 
is something better than life, holier than even real and just 
property, in such an hour as this." And again, we must re- 
member another thing, — the complication of such a struggle 
as this. Bear with me a moment. We put five hundred 
thousand men on the banks of the Potomac. Virginia is held 
by two races, white and black. Suppose those black men flare 
in our faces the Declaration of Independence. What are 
we to say ? Are we to send Northern bayonets to keep slaves 
under the feet of Jefferson Davis? [Many voices, "No!" 
" Never ! " ] In 1842, Governor Wise of Virginia, the sym- 
bol of the South, entered into argument with Quincy Adams, 
who carried Plymouth Rock to Washington. [Applause.] 
It was when Joshua Giddings offered his resolution stating 
his constitutional doctrine that Congress had no right to 
interfere, in any event, in any way, with the slavery of the 
Southern States. Plymouth Rock refused to vote for it. 
Mr. Adams said [substantially] : " If foreign war comes, 



244 The Making of an Oration 

if civil war comes, if insurrection comes, is this beleaguered 
capital, is this besieged government, to see millions of its 
subjects in arms, and have no right to break the fetters which 
they are forging into swords? No; the war power of the 
government can sweep this institution into the Gulf." 
[Cheers.] Ever since 1842, that statesman-like claim and 
warning of the North has been on record, spoken by the lips 
of her wisest son. [Applause.] 

When the South cannonaded Fort Sumter the bones of 
Adams stirred in his coffin. [Cheers.] And you might have 
heard him, from that granite grave at Quincy, proclaim to 
the nation : " The hour has struck ! Seize the thunderbolt 
God has forged for you, and annihilate the system which 
has troubled your peace for seventy years ! " [Cheers.] Do 
not say this is the cold-blooded suggestion. I hardly ever 
knew slavery to go down in any other circumstances. Only 
once, in the broad sweep of the world's history, was any 
nation lifted so high that she could stretch her imperial hand 
across the Atlantic, and lift by one peaceful word a million 
of slaves into liberty. God granted that glory only to our 
motherland. 

You heedlessly expected, and we Abolitionists hoped, that 
such would be our course. Sometimes it really seemed so, 
and we said confidently, the age of bullets is over. At others 
the sky lowered so darkly that we felt our only exodus would 
be one of blood; that, like other nations, our Bastile would 
fall only before revolution. Ten years ago I asked you, 
How did French slavery go down? How did the French 
slavetrade go down? When Napoleon came back from 
Elba, when his fate hung trembling in the balance, and he 
wished to gather around him the sympathies of the liberals 
of Europe, he no sooner set foot in the Tuilleries than he 
signed the edict abolishing the slavetrade, against which the 
Abolitionists of England and France had protested for 



Speeches for Careful Study 245 

twenty years in vain. Ana the trade went down, because 
Napoleon felt he must do something to gild the darkening 
hour of his second attempt to clutch the sceptre of France. 
How did the slave system go down? When, in 1848, the 
provisional government found itself in the hotel de ville, 
obliged to do something to draw to itself the sympathy and 
liberal feeling of the French nation, they signed an edict — 
it was the first from the rising republic — abolishing the 
death-penalty and slavery. The storm which rocked the 
vessel of state almost to foundering snapped forever the chain 
of the French slave. Look, too, at the history of Mexican 
and South American emancipation ; you will find that it was 
in every instance, I think, the child of convulsion. 

That hour has come to us. So stand we today. The 
Abolitionist who will not now cry, when the moment serves, 
" Up, boys, and at them! " is false to liberty. [Great cheer- 
ing. A voice, " So is every other man." ] Yes, today Aboli- 
tionist is merged in citizen, — in American. Say not it is a 
hard lesson. Let him who fully knows his own heart and 
strength, and feels, as he looks down into his child's cradle, 
that he could stand and see that little nestling borne to 
slavery, and submit, — let him cast the first stone. But all 
you, whose blood is wont to stir over Naseby and Bunker 
Hill, will hold your peace, unless you are ready to cry with 
me, — Sic semper tyrannis ! " So may it ever be with 
tyrants ! " [Loud applause.] 

Why, Americans, I believe in the might of nineteen mil- 
lions of people. Yes, I know that what sewing machines and 
reaping machines and ideas and types and schoolhouses can- 
not do, the muskets of Illinois and Massachusetts can finish 
up. [Cheers.] Blame me not that I make everything turn 
on liberty and the slave. I believe in Massachusetts. I 
know that free speech, free toil, schoolhouses, and ballot- 
boxes are a pyramid on its broadest base. Nothing that does 



246 The Making of an Oration 

not sunder the solid globe can disturb it. We defy the world 
to disturb us. [Cheers.] The little errors that dwell upon 
our surface, we have medicine in our institutions to cure 
them all. [Applause.] 

Therefore there is nothing left for a New England man, 
nothing but that he shall wipe away the stain which hangs 
about the toleration of human bondage. As Webster said 
at Rochester, years and years ago : " If I thought that there 
was a stain upon the remotest hem of the garment of my 
country, I would devote my utmost labor to wipe it off." 
[Cheers.] Today that call is made upon Massachusetts. 
That is the reason why I dwell so much on the slavery ques- 
tion. I said I believed in the power of the North to conquer ; 
but where does she get it? I do not believe in the power of 
the North to subdue two millions and a half of Southern 
men, unless she summons justice, the negro, and God to her 
side [cheers]; and in that battle we are sure of this, — we 
are sure to rebuild the Union down to the Gulf. [Renewed 
cheering.] In that battle, with that watchword, with those 
allies, the thirteen States and their children will survive, — 
in the light of the world, a nation which has vindicated the 
sincerity of the Fathers of '87, that they bore children, and 
not 12 peddlers, to represent them in the nineteenth century. 
[Repeated cheers.] But without that, — without that, I know 
also we shall conquer. Sumter annihilated compromise. 
Nothing but victory will blot from history that sight of the 
Stars and Stripes giving place to the palmetto. 13 But with- 
out justice for inspiration, without God for our Ally, we 
shall break the Union asunder; we shall be a confederacy, 
and so will they. This war means one of two things, — 
Emancipation or Disunion. [Cheers.] Out of the smoke 
of the conflict there comes that, — nothing else. It is impos- 
sible there should come anything else. Now, I believe in the 
future and permanent union of the races that cover this con- 



Speeches for Careful Study 247 

tinent from the Pole down to the Gulf, one in race, one in 
history, one in religion, one in industry, one in thought, we 
never can be permanently separated. Your path, if you 
forget the black race, will be over the gulf of Disunion, — 
years of unsettled, turbulent, Mexican and South American 
civilization, back through that desert of forty years to the 
Union which is sure to come. 

But I believe in a deeper conscience, I believe in a North 
more educated than that. I divide you into four sections. 
The first is the ordinary mass, rushing from mere enthusiasm 
to 

A battle whose great aim and scope 

They little care to know, 
Content, like men-at-arms, to cope 

Each with his fronting foe. 

Behind that class stands another, whose only idea in this 
controversy is sovereignty and the flag. The seaboard, the 
wealth, the just-converted Hunkerism 14 of the country, fill 
that class. Next to it stands the third element, the people ; the 
cordwainers of Lynn, the farmers of Worcester, the dwellers 
on the prairie, — Iowa and Wisconsin, Ohio and Maine, — ■ 
the broad surface of the people who have no leisure for 
technicalities, who never studied law, who never had time 
to read any further into the Constitution than the first two 
lines, — ■ " Establish Justice and secure Liberty." They have 
waited long enough ; they have eaten dirt long enough ; they 
have apologized for bankrupt statesmen enough; they have 
quieted their consciences enough ; they have split logic with 
their Abolition neighbors long enough; they have tired of 
trying to find a place between the forty-ninth and forty-eighth 
corner of a constitutional hair [laughter] ; and now that they 
have got their hand on the neck of a rebellious aristocracy, 
in the name of the people, they mean to strangle it. That I 
believe is the body of the people itself. Side by side with 



248 The Making of an Oration 

them stands a fourth class, — small, but active, — the Aboli- 
tionists, who thank God that he has let them see his 15 
salvation before they die. [Cheers.] 

The noise and dust of the conflict may hide the real ques- 
tion at issue. Europe may think, some of us may, that we 
are fighting for forms and parchments, for sovereignty and 
a flag. But really the war is one of opinions ; it is Civiliza- 
tion against Barbarism; it is Freedom against Slavery. The 
cannonshot against Fort Sumter was the yell of pirates 
against the Declaration of Independence, the warcry of the 
North is the echo of that sublime pledge. The South, defy- 
ing Christianity, clutches its victim. The North offers its 
wealth and blood in glad atonement for the selfishness of 
seventy years. The result is as sure as the throne of God. 
I believe in the possibility of justice, in the certainty of 
union. Years hence, when the smoke of this conflict clears 
away, the world will see under our banner all tongues, all 
creeds, all races, — one brotherhood, — and on the banks of 
the Potomac, the Genius of Liberty, robed in light, four and 
thirty stars for her diadem, broken chains under feet, and an 
olive branch in her right hand. [Great applause.] 

NOTES ON THE SPEECH, " UNDER THE FLAG," 

BY 

WENDELL PHILLIPS 

1. " Since '85," the date of the close of the Revolutionary War. 

2. " Osiris," a god of the Egyptians. 

3. The frequent use of antithesis and its effect should be 
considered. 

4. " Jack Cade and Wat Tyler," English rebels. 

5. "Thierry," French historian. 

6. " Doctors of the Sorbonne," teachers of theology in France 
under the " old regime." 

7. The quotation is from "Liberty Bell" that rang from the 
tower of Liberty Hall in Philadelphia, when the Declaration of 
Independence was adopted in 1776. Note the peculiar appropri- 
ateness of the words as used here. 



Speeches for Careful Study 249 

8. " The iQlh of April," the date of the battle of Lexington and 
Concord in the Revolutionary War. 

9. Washington was threatened and the sixth Massachusetts 
regiment, on its way to the relief of the capital, had to fight its 
way through the streets of Baltimore against a mob that opposed 
its passage. 

10. Under the Constitution as originally adopted, five slaves 
counted in estimating representation in Congress as equivalent to 
three white men. 

n. '"89 meant justice." The Constitution went into operation 
in 1789. 

12. Some secessionists are said to have spoken of New 
England as a people of traders. 

13. The flag of South Carolina. 

14. What is the origin and meaning of " Hunkerism " ? 

15. Luke II : 30. 



SPEECH AT LIVERPOOL IN 1863 

BY 

Henry Ward Beecher 

(When Henry Ward Beecher went to England in the summer 
of 1863, he did not intend to make any speeches during his visit. 
He went solely for his health. On reaching England, however, 
he discovered the attitude of the government and the drift of 
popular sentiment, and realized the great danger that the English 
government would formally recognize the independence of the 
Southern Confederacy. That would mean war between the 
United States and England ; and the United States had all the war 
it wanted just then. To avert such a calamity, Mr. Beecher 
consented to do what he could to counteract the influence of the 
Confederate emissaries, who were conducting a very active prop- 
aganda in the interests of the Confederacy. He made five 
speeches — at Manchester, at Glasgow, at Edinburgh, at Liverpool, 
and at London. It is not too much to say that these speeches did 
more to change the tide of public opinion in England with refer- 
ence to the real meaning of the Civil War than did any other one 
influence. They saved England from declaring for the independ- 
ence of the South and from war with the North. They were 
almost, if not altogether, the greatest triumphs of oratory in the 
history of eloquence. Every student should study them all in 
the order in which they were pronounced.) 

For more than twenty-five years I have been made per- 
fectly familiar with popular assemblies in all parts of my 
country except the extreme South. There has not for the 
whole of that time been a single day of my life when it 
would have been safe for me to go south of Mason x and 
Dixon's line in my own country, and all for one reason; my 
solemn, earnest, persistent testimony against that which I 
consider to be the most atrocious thing under the sun — the 

250 



Speeches for Careful Study 251 

system of American slavery in a great free republic. 
[Cheers.] I have passed through that early period, when 
right of speech was denied to me. Again and again I have 
attempted to address audiences that, for no other crime than 
that of free speech, visited me with all manner of contumeli- 
ous epithets ; and now since I have been in England, although 
I have met with greater kindness and courtesy on the part of 
most than I deserved, yet, on the other hand, I perceive that 
the Southern influence prevails to some extent in England. 
It is my old acquaintance; I understand it perfectly — 
[laughter] — and I have always held it to be an unfailing 
truth that where a man had a cause that would bear exami- 
nation he was perfectly willing to have it spoken about. 
[Applause.] And when in Manchester I saw those huge 2 
placards, "Who is Henry Ward Beecher?" — [laughter, 
cries of " Quite right," and applause] — and when in Liver- 
pool I was told that there were those blood-red placards, pur- 
porting to say what Henry Ward Beecher had said, and 
calling on Englishmen to suppress free speech — I tell you 
what I thought. I thought simply this — "I am glad of it." 
[Laughter.] Why? Because if they had felt perfectly 
secure, that you are the minions of the South and the slaves 
of slavery, they would have been perfectly still. And, there- 
fore, when I saw so much nervous apprehension that, if I 
were permitted to speak — when I found they were afraid 
to have me speak — [hisses, .laughter, and " No, no " ] — ■ 
when I found that they considered my speaking damaging to 
their cause — [applause] — when I found that they appealed 
from facts and reasonings to mob law, I said: no man need 
tell me what the heart and secret counsel of these men are. 
They tremble and are afraid. [Applause, laughter, hisses, 
" No, no," and a voice : " New York mob." ] Now, person- 
ally, it is a matter of very little consequence to me whether 
I speak here tonight or not. [Laughter and cheers.] But, 



252 The Making of an Oration 

one thing is very certain — if you do permit me to speak here 
tonight you will hear very plain talk. [Applause and hisses.] 
You will not find a man — [interruption] — you will not find 
me to be a man that dared to speak about Great Britain three 
thousand miles off, and then is afraid to speak to Great 
Britain when he stands on her shores. [Immense applause 
and hisses.] And if I do not mistake the tone and the temper 
of Englishmen, they had rather have a man who opposes 
them in a manly way — [applause from all parts of the hall] 
— -than a sneak that agrees with them in an unmanly way. 
[Applause and " Bravo." ] Now, if I can carry you with me 
by sound convictions, I shall be immensely glad; but if I 
cannot carry you with me by facts and sound arguments, I 
do not wish you to go with me at all; and all that I ask is 
simply 3 fair play. [Applause, and a voice : " You shall 
have it, too." ] Those of you who are kind enough to wish 
to favor my speaking — and you will observe that my voice 
is slightly husky, from having spoken almost every night in 
succession for some time past — those who wish to hear me 
will do me the kindness simply to sit still, and to keep still ; 
and I and my friends the Secessionists will make all the 
noise. [Laughter.] 

There are two dominant races in modern history — the 
Germanic and the Romanic races. The Germanic races 4 
tend to personal liberty, to a sturdy individualism, to civil 
and political liberty. The Romanic race tends to absolutism 
in government; it is clannish, it loves chieftains, it develops 
a people that crave strong and showy governments to sup- 
port and plan for them. The Anglo-Saxon race belongs to 
the great German family, and is a fair exponent of its pecu- 
liarities. The Anglo-Saxon carries self-government and 
self -development with him wherever he goes. He has popu- 
lar government and popular industry; for the effects of a 
generous civil liberty are not seen a whit more plain in the 



Speeches for Careful Study 253 

good order, in the intelligence, and in the virtue of a self- 
governing people, than in their amazing enterprise and the 
scope and power of their creative industry. The power to 
create riches is just as much a part of the Anglo-Saxon 
virtues as the power to create good order and social safety. 
The things required for prosperous labor, prosperous manu- 
factures, and prosperous commerce are three: First, liberty; 
second, liberty; third, liberty. Though these are not merely 
the same liberty as I shall show you. First, there must be 
liberty to follow those laws of business, which experience 
has developed, without imposts or restrictions, or govern- 
mental intrusions. Business simply wants to be let alone. 
Then, secondly, there must be liberty to distribute and ex- 
change products of industry in any market without burden- 
some tariffs, without imposts, and without vexatious regula- 
tions. There must be these two liberties — liberty to create 
wealth, as the makers of it think best according to the light 
and experience which business has given them; and then 
liberty to distribute what they have created without unneces- 
sary vexatious burdens. The comprehensive law of the ideal 
industrial condition of the world is free manufacture and 
free trade. [A voice : " The Morrill tariff." Another voice : 
" Monroe." ] I have said there were three elements of 
liberty. The third is the necessity of an intelligent and free 
race of customers. There must be freedom among produ- 
cers; there must be freedom among the distributors; there 
must be freedom among the customers. 

It may not have occurred to you that it makes any differ- 
ence what one's customers are, but it does in all regular and 
prolonged business. The condition of the customer deter- 
mines how much he will buy, determines of what sort he will 
buy. Poor and ignorant people buy little and that of the 
poorest kind. The richest and the intelligent, having the 
more means to buy, buy the most, and always buy the best. 



254 The Making of an Oration 

Here, then, are the three liberties — liberty of the producer; 
liberty of the distributor; and liberty of the consumer. The 
first two need no discussion, they have been long thoroughly 
and brilliantly illustrated by the political economists of Great 
Britain, and by her eminent statesmen; but it seems to me 
that enough attention has not been directed to the third ; and, 
with your patience, I will dwell on that for a moment, before 
proceeding to other topics. It is a necessity of every manu- 
facturing and commercial people that their customers should 
be very wealthy and intelligent. Let us put the subject 
before you in the familiar light of your own local experience. 
To whom do the tradesmen of Liverpool sell the most goods 
at the highest profit? To the ignorant and poor, or to the 
educated and prosperous ? [A voice : " To the Southerners." 
Laughter.] The poor man buys simply for his body ; he buys 
food, he buys clothing, he buys fuel, he buys lodging. His 
rule is to buy the least and the cheapest that he can. He goes 
to the store as seldom as he can, — he brings away as little 
as he can, — and he buys for the least he can. [Much laugh- 
ter.] Poverty is not a misfortune to the poor only, who 
suffer it, but it is more or less a misfortune to all with whom 
he deals. On the other hand, a man well off, — how is it with 
him? He buys in far greater quantity. He can afford to do 
it; he has the money to pay for it. He buys in far greater 
variety, because he seeks to gratify not merely physical 
wants, but also mental wants. He buys for the satisfaction 
of sentiment and taste, as well as of sense. He buys silk, 
wool, flax, cotton; he buys all metals — iron, silver, gold, 
platinum ; in short he buys for all necessities and of all sub- 
stances. But that is not all. He buys a better quality of 
goods. He buys richer silks, finer cottons, higher grained 
wools. Now, a rich silk means so much skill and care of 
somebody's that has been expended upon it to make it finer 
and richer; and so of cotton, and so of wool. That is, the 



Speeches for Careful Study 255 

price of the finer goods runs back to the very beginning, and 
remunerates the workman as well as the merchant. Now, 
the whole laboring community is as much interested and 
profited as the mere merchant, in this buying and selling of 
the higher grades, in the greater varieties and quantities. 
The law of price is the skill; and the amount of skill ex- 
pended in the work is as much for the market as are the 
goods. A man comes 5 to market and says, " I have a pair of 
hands," and he obtains the lowest wages. Another man 
comes and says, " I have something more than a pair of 
hands ; I have truth and fidelity ; " he gets a higher price. 
Another man comes and says, " I have something more ; I 
have hands, and strength, and fidelity, and skill." He gets 
more than either of the others. The next man comes and 
says, " I have got hands, and strength, and skill, and fidelity ; 
but my hands work more than that. They know how to 
create things for the fancy, for the affections, for the moral 
sentiments " ; and he gets more than either of the others. 
The last man comes and says, " I have all these qualities, and 
have them so highly that it is a peculiar genius " ; and genius 
carries the whole market and gets the highest price. So that 
both the workman and the merchant are profited by having 
purchasers that demand quality, variety, and quantity. Now, 
if this be so in the town or the city, it can only be so because 
it is a law. This is the specific development of a general or 
universal law, and therefore we should expect to find it as 
true of a nation as of a city like Liverpool. I know it is so, 
and you know that it is true of all the world; and it is just 
as important to have customers educated, intelligent, moral, 
and rich out of Liverpool as it is in Liverpool. They are 
able to buy ; they want variety, they want the very best ; and 
those are the customers you want. The nation is the best 
customer that is freest, because freedom works prosperity, 
industry, and wealth. 



256 The Making of an Oration 

Great Britain, 6 then, aside from moral considerations, has 
a direct commercial and pecuniary interest in the liberty, 
civilization, and wealth of every people and every nation on 
the globe. You have also an interest in this, because you are 
a moral and religious people. You desire it from the highest 
motives; and godliness is profitable in all things, having the 
promise of the life that is, as well as of that which is to 
come; but if there were no hereafter, and if a man had no 
progress in this life, and if there were no question of civi- 
lization at all, it would be worth your while to protect 
civilization and liberty, merely as a commercial speculation. 
To evangelize has more than a moral and religious import — 
it comes back to temporal relations. Whenever a nation that 
is crushed, cramped, degraded under despotism is struggling 
to be free, you, Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, Paisley, all 
have an interest that that nation should be free. When de- 
pressed and backward people demand that they may have a 
chance to rise — Hungary, Italy, Poland — it is a duty for 
humanity's sake, it is a duty for the highest moral motives, 
to sympathize with them; but beside all these there is a 
material and an interested reason why you should sympathize 
with them. Pounds and pence join with conscience and with 
honor in this design. Now, Great Britain's chief want is — 
what? They have said that your chief want is cotton. I 
deny it. Your chief want is consumers. [Applause and 
laughter.] You have got skill, you have got capital, and you 
have got machinery enough to manufacture goods for the 
whole population of the globe. You could turn out fourfold 
as much as you do, if you only had the market to sell in. It 
is not so much the want, therefore, of fabric, though there 
may be a temporary obstruction of it; but the principal and 
increasing want — increasing from year to year — is, where 
shall we find men to buy what we can manufacture so fast? 
[Interruption, and a voice, " The Morrill tariff," and ap- 



Speeches for Careful Study 257 

plause.] Before the American war broke out, your ware- 
houses were loaded with goods that you could not sell. You 
had over-manufactured; what is the meaning of over- 
manufacturing but this, that you had skill, capital, machinery, 
to create faster than you had customers to take goods off 
your hands? And you know, that, rich as Great Britain is, 
vast as are her manufactures, if she could have fourfold the 
present demand, she could make fourfold riches tomorrow; 
and every political economist will tell you that your want is 
not cotton primarily, but customers. Therefore, the doctrine, 
how to make customers, is a great deal more important to 
Great Britain than the doctrine how to raise cotton. It is to 
that doctrine I ask from you, business men, practical men, 
men of fact, sagacious Englishmen — to that point I ask a 
moment's attention. [Shouts of "Oh, oh," hisses, and ap- 
plause.] There are no more continents to be discovered. 
The market of the future must be found — how? There is 
very little hope of any more demand being created by new 
fields. If you are to have a better market there must be some 
kind of process invented to make the old fields better. [A 
voice, "Tell us something new," shouts of "Order," and 
interruption.] Let us look at it, then. You must civilize the 
world in order to make a better class of purchasers. If you 
were to press Italy down again under the feet of despotism, 
Italy, discouraged, could draw but very few supplies from 
you. But give her liberty, kindle schools throughout her 
valleys, spur her industry, make treaties with her by which 
she can exchange her wine, and her oil, and her silk for your 
manufactured goods; and for every effort that you make in 
that direction there will come back profit to you in increased 
traffic with her. If Hungary asks to be an unshackled nation 
— if by freedom she will rise in virtue and intelligence, then 
by freedom she will acquire a more multifarious industry, 
which she will be willing to exchange for your manufactures. 



258 The Making of an Oration 

Her liberty is to be found — where? You will find it in the 
Word of God, you will find it in the code of history; but you 
will also find it in the Price Current; and every free nation, 
every civilized people — every people that rises from barbar- 
ism to industry and intelligence, becomes a better customer. 
A savage is a man of one story, and that one story a cellar. 
When a man begins to be civilized, he raises another story. 
When you Christianize and civilize the man, you put story 
upon story, for you develop faculty after faculty; and you 
have to supply every story with your productions. The 
savage is a man one story deep; the civilized man is thirty 
stories deep. Now, if you go to a lodging house, where there 
are three or four men, your sales to them may, no doubt, be 
worth something; but if you go to a lodging house like some 
of those which I saw in Edinburgh, which seemed to contain 
about twenty stories — [ " Oh, oh," and interruption] ■ — every 
story of which is full, and all who occupy buy of you — 
which is the best customer, — the man who is drawn out, or 
the man who is pinched up? [Laughter.] Now, there is in 
this a great and sound principle of political economy. 
[ " Yah ! yah ! " from the passage outside the hall, and loud 
laughter.] If the South should be rendered independent — 
[at this juncture mingled cheering and hisses became im- 
mense; half the audience rose to their feet, waving hats and 
handkerchiefs, and in every part of the hall there was the 
greatest commotion and uproar.] You have had your turn 
now; now let me have mine again. [Loud applause and 
laughter.] It is a little inconvenient to talk against the wind ; 
but, after all, if you will just keep good-natured — I am not 
going to lose my temper ; will you watch yours ? Besides all 
that, — it rests me, and gives me a chance, you know, to get 
my breath. [Applause and hisses.] And I think that the 
bark of those men is worse than their bite. They do not 
mean any harm — they don't know any better. [Loud 
laughter, applause, hisses, and continued uproar.] 



Speeches for Careful Study 259 

I was saying, when these responses broke in, that it was 
worth our while to consider both alternatives. What will be 
the result if this present struggle shall eventuate in the sep- 
aration of America, and making the South — [loud applause, 
hisses, hooting, and cries of " Bravo ! " ] — a slave territory 
exclusively, — [cries of "No, no," and laughter] — and the 
North a free territory, what will be the first result? You will 
lay the foundation for carrying the slave population clear 
through to the Pacific Ocean. That is the first step. There 
is not a man that has been a leader of the South any time 
within these twenty years, that has not had this for a plan. 
It was for this that they engaged in the Mexican War itself, 
by which the vast territory reaching to the Pacific was added 
to the Union. Never have they for a moment given up the 
plan of spreading the American institutions, as they call 
them, straight through towards the West, until the slaver, 
who has washed his feet in the Atlantic, shall be carried to 
wash them in the Pacific. [Cries of " Question," and up- 
roar.] There ! I have got that statement out, and you 
cannot put it back. [Laughter and applause.] Now let us 
consider the prospect. If the South becomes a slave empire, 
what relation will it have to you as a customer? [A voice: 
" Or any other man." Laughter.] It would be an empire of 
12,000,000 of people. Now, of these, 8,000,000 are white and 
4,000,000 are black. [A voice : " How many have you got ? " 
— applause and laughter. Another voice : " Free your own 
slaves." ] Consider that one-third of the whole are the 
miserably poor, unbuying blacks. [Cries of " No, no," " Yes, 
yes," and interruption.] You do not manufacture much for 
them. [Hisses, " Oh ! " " No." ] You have not got machin- 
ery coarse enough. [Laughter and " No." ] Your labor is 
too skilled by far to manufacture bagging and linsey-woolsey. 
[Southerner : " We are going to free them every one." ] 
Then you and I agree exactly. [Laughter.] One other third 



260 The Making of an Oration 

consists of a poor, unskilled, degraded white population; and 
the remaining one-third, which is a large allowance, we will 
say, intelligent and rich. Now here are twelve million of 
people, and only one-third of them are customers that can 
afford to buy the kind of goods that you bring to market. 
[Interruption and uproar.] My friends, I saw a man once, 
who was a little late at the railway station, chase an express 
train. He did not catch it. [Laughter.] If you are going to 
stop this meeting, you have got to stop it before I speak ; for 
after I have got the things out, you may chase as long as 
you please — you would not catch them. [Laughter and in- 
terruption.] But there is luck in leisure ; I 'm going to take 
it easy. [Laughter.] Two-thirds of the population of the 
Southern States today are non-purchasers of English goods. 
[A voice : " No, they are not," " No, no," and uproar.] 
Now you must recollect another fact — namely, that this is 
going on clear through to the Pacific Ocean ; and if by sym- 
pathy or help you establish a slave empire, you sagacious 
Britons — ["Oh, oh," and hooting] — if you like it better, 
then, I will leave the adjective out — [laughter, "Hear," and 
applause] — are busy in favoring the establishment of an 
empire from ocean to ocean that should have fewest custom- 
ers and the largest non-buying population. [Applause, " No, 
no." A voice : " I think it was the happy people that popu- 
lated fastest." ] Now, for instance, just look at this, the 
difference between free labor and slave labor to produce 
cultivated land. The State of Virginia has 15,000 more 
square miles of land than the State of New York; but Vir- 
ginia has only 15,000 square miles improved, while New York 
has 20,000 square miles improved. Of unimproved land 
Virginia has about 23,000 square miles, and New York only 
about 10,000 square miles. Now, these facts speak volumes 
as to the capacity of the territory to bear population. The 
smaller is the quantity of soil uncultivated, the greater is the 



Speeches for Careful Study 261 

density of the population — and upon that, their value as 
customers depends. Let us take the States of Maryland and 
Massachusetts. Maryland has 2,000 more square miles of 
land than Massachusetts; but Maryland has about 4,000 
square miles of land improved, Massachusetts has 3,200 
square miles. Maryland has 2,800 unimproved square miles 
of land, while Massachusetts has but 1,800 square miles un- 
improved. But these two are little states, — let us take 
greater states. Pennsylvania and Georgia. The State of 
Georgia has 12,000 more square miles of land than Pennsyl- 
vania. Georgia has only about 9,800 square miles of im- 
proved land, Pennsylvania has 13,400 square miles of 
improved land, or about 2,300,000 acres more than Georgia. 
Georgia has about 25,600 square miles of unimproved land, 
and Pennsylvania has only 10,400 square miles, or about 
10,000*000 acres less of unimproved land than Georgia. The 
one is a Slave State and the other is a Free State. I do not 
want you to forget such statistics as those, having once heard 
them. [Laughter.] Now, what can England make for the 
poor white population of such a future empire, and for her 
slave population? What carpets, what linens, what cottons 
can you sell to them? What machines, what looking- 
glasses, what combs, what leather, what books, what pic- 
tures, what engravings ? [A voice : " We '11 sell them 
ships." ] You may sell ships to a few, but what ships can 
you sell to two-thirds of the population of poor whites and 
blacks? A little bagging and a little linsey-woolsey, a few 
whips and manacles, are all that you can sell for the slave. 
[Great applause, and uproar.] This very day, in the Slave 
States of America there are eight millions out of twelve 
millions that are not, and cannot be your customers from the 
very laws of trade. [A voice : " Then how are they 
clothed?" and interruption.] 

The Chairman : If gentlemen will only sit down, those 
who are making the disturbance will be tired out. 



262 The Making of an Oration 

Mr. Beecher resumed: There are some apparent draw- 
backs that may suggest themselves. The first is that the in- 
terests of England consist in drawing from any country its 
raw material. [A voice : " We have got over that." ] There 
is an interest, but it is not the interest of England. The in- 
terest of England is not merely where to buy her cotton, her 
ores, her wool, her linens, and her flax. When she has put 
her brains into the cotton, and into the linen and flax, and it 
becomes the product of her looms, a far more important 
question is, " What can be done with it ? " England does not 
want merely to pay prices for that which brain labor pro- 
duces. Your interest lies beyond all peradventure ; therefore, 
if you should bring ever so much cotton from the slave em- 
pire, you cannot sell back again to the slave empire. [A 
voice: "Go on with your subject; we know all about 
England." ] Excuse me, sir, I am the speaker, not you ; and 
it is for me to determine what to say. Do you suppose I am 
going to speak about America except to convince English- 
men? I am here to talk to you for the sake of ultimately 
carrying you with me in judgment and in thinking — and, as 
to this logic of cat-calls, it is slavery logic, — I am used to it. 
[Applause, hisses, and cheers.] Now, it is said that if the 
South should be allowed to be separate there will be no tariff, 
and England can trade with her; but if the South remain in 
the United States, it will be bound by a tariff, and English 
goods will be excluded from it. Now, I am not going to 
shirk any question of that kind. In the first place, let me tell 
you that the first tariff ever proposed in America was not 
only supported by Southern interests and votes, but was 
originated by the peculiar structure of Southern society. 
The first and chief difficulty — after the Union was formed 
under our present Constitution — the first difficulty that met 
our fathers was, how to raise taxes to support the govern- 
ment; and the question of representation and taxes went to- 



Speeches for Careful Study 263 

gether; and the difficulty was, whether we should tax the 
North and South alike, man for man per caput, counting the 
slaves with whites. The North having fewer slaves in com- 
parison with the number of its whites ; the South, which had 
a larger number of blacks, said, " We shall be over-taxed if 
this system be adopted." They therefore proposed that 
taxes and representation should be on the basis of five black 
men counting as three white men. In a short time it was 
found impossible to raise these taxes in the South, and then 
they cast about for a better way, and the tariff scheme was 
submitted. The object was to raise the revenue from the 
ports instead of from the people. The tariff therefore had 
its origin in Southern weaknesses and necessities, and not in 
the Northern cities. Daniel Webster's first speech was 
against it; but after that was carried by Southern votes 
[which for more than fifty years determined the law of the 
country] , New England accepted it, and saying, " It is the 
law of the land," conformed her industry to it ; and when she 
had got her capital embarked in mills and machinery, she 
became in favor of it. But the South, beginning to feel, as 
she grew stronger, that it was against her interest to con- 
tinue the system, sought to have the tariff modified, and 
brought it down; though Henry Clay, a Southern man him- 
self, was the immortal champion of the tariff. All his life- 
time he was for a high tariff, till such a tariff could no longer 
stand; and then he was for moderating the tariffs. And 
there has not been for the whole of the fifty years a single 
hour when any tariff could be passed without them. The 
opinion of the whole of America was, tariff, high tariff. I 
do not mean that there were none that dissented from that 
opinion, but it was the popular and prevalent cry. I have 
lived to see the time when, just before the war broke out, it 
might be said that the thinking men of America were ready 
for freetrade. There has been a steady progress throughout 



264 The Making of an Oration 

America for freetrade ideas. How came this Morrill tariff? 
The Democratic administration inspired by Southern coun- 
sels, left millions of unpaid debts to cramp the incoming 
of Lincoln; and the government, betrayed to the Southern 
States, found itself unable to pay those debts, unable to 
build a single ship, unable to raise an army; and it was 
the exigency, the necessity, that forced them to adopt the 
Morrill tariff, in order to raise the money which they re- 
quired. It was the South that obliged the North to put the 
tariff on. Just as soon as we begin to have peace again, and 
can get our national debt into a proper shape as you have got 
yours — [laughter] the same cause that worked before will 
begin to work again ; and there is nothing more certain in the 
future than that the American is bound to join with Great 
Britain in the worldwide doctrine of freetrade. [Applause 
and interruption.] Here then, so far as this argument is 
concerned, I rest my case, saying that it seems to me that in 
an argument addressed to a commercial people it was per- 
fectly fair to represent that their commercial and manufac- 
turing interests tallied with their moral sentiments; and as 
by birth, by blood, by history, by moral feeling, and by every- 
thing, Great Britain is connected with the liberty of the 
world, God has joined interest and conscience, head and 
heart ; so that you ought to be in favor of liberty everywhere. 
There! I have got quite a speech out already, if I do not 
get any more. [Hisses and applause.] 

Now then, leaving this for a time, let me turn to some 
other nearly connected topics. It is said that the South is 
fighting for just that independence of which I have been 
speaking. The South is divided on that subject. [" No, 
no." ] There are twelve millions in the South. Four mil- 
lions of them are asking for their liberty. [ " No, no," hisses, 
" Yes," applause, and interruption.] Four millions are ask- 
ing for their liberty. [Continued interruption, and renewed 



Speeches for Careful Study 265 

applause.] Eight millions are banded together to prevent it. 
[ " No, no," hisses, and applause.] That is what they asked 
the world to recognize as a strike for independence. [ " Hear, 
hear " and laughter.] Eight million white men fighting to 
prevent the liberty of four million black men, challenging the 
world. [Uproar, hisses, applause, and continued interrup- 
tion.] You cannot get over the fact. There it is; like iron, 
you cannot stir it. [Uproar.] They went out of the Union 
because slave property was not recognized in it. There were 
two ways of reaching slave property in the Union; the one 
by exerting the direct Federal authority; but they could not 
do that, for they conceived it to be forbidden. The second 
was by indirect influence. If you put a candle under a bowl 
it will burn so long as the fresh air lasts, but it will go out as 
soon as the oxygen is exhausted; and so, if you put slavery 
into a state where it cannot get more states, it is only a ques- 
tion of time how long it will live. By limiting slave terri- 
tory you lay the foundation for the final extinction of slav- 
ery. Gardeners say that the reason why crops will not grow 
in the same ground for a long time together, is that the roots 
excrete poisoned matter which the plants cannot use, and 
thus poison the grain. Whether this is true of crops or not, 
it is certainly true of slavery, for slavery poisons the land 
on which it grows. Look at the old slave states, Delaware, 
Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and even at the 
newer State of Missouri. What is the condition of slavery 
in those states? It is not worth one cent except to breed. 
It is not worth one cent so far as productive energy goes. 
They cannot make money by their slaves in those states. The 
first reason with them for maintaining slavery is, because it 
gives political power ; and the second, because they breed for 
the Southern market. I do not stand on my own testimony 
alone. The editor of the Virginia Times, in the year 1836, 
made a calculation that 120,000 slaves were sent out of the 



266 The Making of an Oration 

state during that year ; 80,000 of which went with their own- 
ers, and 40,000 were sold at the average price of six hundred 
dollars, amounting to 24,000,000 dollars in one year out of 
the State of Virginia. Now, what does Henry Clay, himself 
a slave owner, say about Kentucky? In a speech before the 
Colonization Society, he said : " It is believed that nowhere 
in the farming portion of the United States would slave 
labor be generally employed, if the proprietary were not com- 
pelled to raise slaves by the high price of the Southern 
market," and the only profit of slave property in Northern 
farming slave states is the value they bring. [A voice: 
" Then if the Northerners breed to supply the South, what 's 
the difference? " ] So that if you were to limit slavery, and 
to say, it shall go so far and no further, it would be only a 
question of time when it should die of its own intrinsic weak- 
ness and disease. 

Now, this was the Northern feeling. The North was true 
to the doctrine of constitutional rights. The North refused, 
by any Federal action within the states, to violate the com- 
pacts of the Constitution, and left local compacts unimpaired ; 
but the North, feeling herself unbound with regard to what 
we call the territories, — free land which has not yet state 
rights, — said there should be no more territory cursed with 
slavery. With unerring instinct the South said, "The gov- 
ernment administered by Northern men on the principle that 
there shall be no more slave territory, is a government fatal 
to slavery," and it was on that account that they seceded — 
[ " No, no," " Yes, yes," applause, hisses and uproar] — and 
the first step which they took when they assembled at Mont- 
gomery, was, to adopt a constitution. What constitution did 
they adopt? The same form of constitution which they had 
just abandoned. What changes did they introduce? A 
trifling change about the Presidential term, making it two 
years longer; a slight change about some doctrine of legis- 



Speeches for Careful Study 267 

lation, involving no principle whatever, but merely a ques- 
tion of policy. But by the constitution of Montgomery they 
legalized slavery; and made it the organic law of the land. 
The very constitution which they said they could not live 
under when they left the Union they took again immediately 
afterwards, only altering it in one point, and that was, mak- 
ing the fundamental law of the land to be slavery. Let no 
man undertake to say in the face of intelligence — let no 
man undertake to delude an honest community, by saying 
that slavery had nothing to do with the Secession. Slavery 
is the framework of the South ; it is the root and the branch 
of the conflict with the South. Take away slavery from the 
South, and she would not differ from us in any respect. 
There is not a single antagonistic interest. There is no dif- 
ference of race, no difference of language, no difference of 
law, no difference of constitution; the only difference be- 
tween us is, that free labor is in the North and slave labor 
is in the South. [Loud applause.] 

But I know that you say, you cannot help sympathizing 
with a gallant people. They are the weaker people, the 
minority; and you cannot help going with the minority who 
are struggling for their rights against the majority. Nothing 
could be more generous, when a weak party stands for its own 
legitimate rights against imperious pride and power, than to 
sympathize with the weak. But who ever yet sympathized 
with a weak thief, because three constables got hold of 
him? And yet the one thief in three policemen's hands is 
the weaker party. I suppose you would sympathize with 
him. [Laughter, and applause.] Why, when that infamous 
king of Naples, Bomba, was driven into Gaeta by Garibaldi 
with his immortal band of patriots, and Cavour sent against 
him the army of Northern Italy, who was the weaker party 
then? The tyrant and his minions; and the majority was 
with the noble Italian patriots, struggling for liberty. I never 



268 The Making of an Oration 

heard that Old England sent deputations to King Bomba, and 
yet his troops resisted bravely there. [Laughter and inter- 
ruption.] Today the majority of the people of Rome is with 
Italy. Nothing but French bayonets keeps her from going 
back to the kingdom of Italy, to which she belongs. Do you 
sympathize with the minority in Rome or the majority in 
Italy ? [A voice : " With Italy." ] Today the South is the 
minority in America, and they are righting for independence ! 
For what? [Uproar. A voice: "Three cheers for inde- 
pendence," and hisses.] I could wish so much bravery had 
had a better cause, and that so much self-denial' had been less 
deluded; that that poisonous and venomous doctrine of State 
rights might have been kept aloof; that so many gallant 
spirits, such as Jackson, might still have lived. [Great ap- 
plause and loud cheers, again and again renewed.] The force 
of these facts, historical and incontrovertible, cannot be 
broken, except by diverting attention by an attack upon the 
North. It is said that the North is fighting for union, and 
not for emancipation. A great many men say to ministers 
of the Gospel — " You pretend to be preaching and working 
for the love of people. Why, you are all the time preaching 
for the sake of the church." What does the minister say? 
" It is by means of the church that we help the people," and 
when men say that we are righting for the Union, I too say 
we are fighting for the Union. But the motive determines 
the value ; and why are we fighting for the Union ? Because 
we never shall forget the testimony of our enemies. They 
have gone off declaring that the Union in the hands of the 
North was fatal to slavery. There is testimony in court for 
you. [A voice : " See that," and laughter.] We are fighting 
for the Union, because we believe that preamble which ex- 
plains the very reason for which the Union was constituted. 
I will read it. "We" — not the States — "We, the people 
of the United States, in order to form a more perfect nation " 



Speeches for Careful Study 269 

— [uproar] — I do n't wonder you do n't want to hear it — 
[laughter] " in order to form a more perfect nation, establish 
justice, assure domestic tranquility — [uproar] — provide for 
the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure 
the blessings of liberty — [ " oh, oh " ] — to ourselves and 
our posterity, ordain and establish this Constitution of the 
United States of America." [A voice : " How many 
States?"] It is for the sake of that justice, that common 
welfare, and that liberty for which the National Union was 
established, that we fight for the Union. [Interruption.] 
Because the South believed that the Union was against slav- 
ery, they left it. [Renewed interruption.] Yes. [Applause, 
and " No, no."] Today, however, if the North believed that 
the Union was against liberty, they would leave it. [" Oh, 
oh," and great disturbance.] Gentlemen, I have traveled in 
the West ten or twelve hours at a time in the mud knee-deep. 
It was hard toiling my way, but I always got through my 
journey. I feel, tonight, as though I were traveling over 
a very muddy road ; but I think I shall get through. [Cheers.] 

Well, next it is said, that the North treats the negro race 
worse than the South. [Applause, cries of " Bravo ! " and 
uproar.] Now, you see I do n't fear any of these disagreeable 
arguments. I am going to face every one of them. In the 
first place I am ashamed to confess that such was the thought- 
lessness — [interruption] — such was the stupor of the North 

— [renewed interruption] — you will get a word at a time ; 
tomorrow will let folks see what it is you do n't want to hear — 
that for a period of twenty-five years she went to sleep, and 
permitted herself to be drugged and poisoned with the South- 
ern prejudice against black men. The evil was made worse, 
because, when any object whatever has caused anger between 
political parties, a political animosity arises against that object, 
no matter how innocent in itself; no matter what were the 
original influences which excited the quarrel. Thus the col- 



270 The Making of an Oration 

ored man has been the football between the two parties in 
the North and has suffered accordingly. I confess it to my 
shame. But I am speaking now on my own ground, for I 
began twenty-five years ago, with a small party, to combat the 
unjust dislike of the colored man. [Loud applause, dissen- 
sion, and uproar. The interruption at this point became so 
violent that the friends of Mr. Beecher throughout the hall 
rose to their feet, waving hats and handkerchiefs, and renew- 
ing their shouts of applause. The interruption lasted some 
minutes.] Well, I have lived to see a total revolution in the 
Northern feeling — I stand here to bear solemn witness of 
that. It is not my opinion; it is my knowledge. [Great up- 
roar.] Those men who undertook to stand up for the rights 
of all men — black as well as white — have increased in num- 
ber; and now what party in the North represents those men 
that resist the evil prejudices of past years? The Republi- 
cans are that party. [Loud applause.] And who are those 
men in the North that have oppressed the negro? They are 
the Peace Democrats; and the prejudice for which in Eng- 
land you are attempting to punish me, is a prejudice raised 
by the men who have opposed me all my life. These pro- 
slavery Democrats abused the negro. I defended him, and 
they mobbed me for doing it. Oh, justice ! [Loud laughter, 
applause, and hisses.] This is as if a man should commit an 
assault, maim and wound a neighbor, and a surgeon being 
called in, should begin to dress his wounds, and by-and-by 
a policeman should come and collar the surgeon and haul 
him off to prison on account of the wounds which he was 
healing. 

Now, I told you I would not flinch from anything. I am 
going to read you some questions that were sent after me 
from Glasgow, purporting to be from a working man. [Great 
interruption.] If those pro-slavery interruptors think they 
will tire me out, they will do more than eight millions in 



Speeches for Careful Study 271 

America could. [Applause and renewed interruption.] I was 
reading a question on your side, too : " Is it not a fact that 
in most of the Northern States laws exist precluding negroes 
from equal civil and political rights with the whites? That 
in the State of New York the negro has to be the possessor 
of at least two hundred and fifty dollars' worth of property 
to entitle him to the privileges of a white citizen? That in 
some of the Northern States the colored man, whether bond 
or free, is by law excluded altogether, and not suffered to enter 
the State limits, under severe penalties; and is not Mr. Lin- 
coln's own State one of them ; and in view of the fact that the 
$20,000,000 compensation which was promised to Missouri 
in aid of emancipation was defeated in the last Congress [the 
strongest Republican Congress that ever assembled], what 
has the North done towards emancipation ? " Now then, 
there 's a dose for you. [A voice : " Answer it." ] And I will 
address myself to the answering of it. And first, the bill for 
emancipation in Missouri, to which this money was denied, 
was a bill which was drawn by what we call "log rollers," 
who inserted in it an enormously disproportioned price for 
the slave. The Republicans offered to give them $10,000,000 
for the slaves in Missouri, and they outvoted it because they 
could not get $12,000,000 for what was not worth ten millions, 
nor even eight millions. 

Now as to those States that had passed " black " laws, as 
we call them; they are filled with Southern emigrants. The 
southern parts of Ohio, the southern part of Indiana, where 
I myself lived for years, and which I knew like a book, the 
southern part of Illinois where Mr. Lincoln lives — [great 
uproar] — these parts are largely settled by emigrants from 
Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, and North Carolina, 
and it was their vote, or the Northern votes pandering for 
political reasons to theirs, that passed in those states the in- 
famous "black" laws; and the Republicans in these states 



272 The Making of an Oration 

have a record, clean and white, as having opposed these laws 
in every instance as " infamous." Now as to the State of New 
York, it is asked whether a negro is not obliged to have a cer- 
tain freehold property, or a certain amount of property, before 
he can vote. It is so still in North Carolina and Rhode Island 
for white folks — it is so in New York State. [Mr. Beecher's 
voice slightly failed him here, and he was interrupted by a 
person who tried to imitate him; cries of "Shame" and 
" Turn him out." ] I am not undertaking to say that these 
faults of the North, which were brought upon them by the bad 
example and influence of the South are all cured; but I do 
say that they are in a process of cure which promises, if un- 
impeded by foreign influence, to make all such odious distinc- 
tions vanish. " Is it not a fact that in most of the Northern 
States laws exist precluding negroes from equal civil and 
political rights with the whites ? " I will tell you. Let me 
compare the condition of the negro in the North and the 
South, and that will tell the story. By express law the South 
takes away from the slave all attributes of manhood, and calls 
him " chattel," which is another word for " cattle." [Hear, 
hear, and hisses.] No law in any Northern State calls him 
anything else but a person. The South denies the right of 
legal permanent marriage to the slave. There is not a State 
of the North where the marriage of the slave is not as sacred 
as that of any free white man. [Immense cheering.] 
Throughout the South, since the slave is not permitted to live 
in anything but in concubinage, his wife, so-called, is taken 
from him at the will of his master, and there is neither public 
sentiment nor law that can hinder most dreadful and cruel 
separations every year in every county and town. There is 
not a state, county, or town, or school district in the North, 
where, if any man dare to violate the family of the poorest 
black man, there would not be an indignation that would 
overwhelm him. [Loud applause. A voice : " How about 



Speeches for Careful Study 273 

the riots ? " ] Irishmen made that entirely. In the South by 
statutory law it is a penitentiary offence to teach a black to 
read and write. In the North not only are hundreds and 
thousands of dollars expended of state money in teaching 
colored people, but they have their own schools, their own 
academies, their own churches, their own ministers, their own 
lawyers. In the South, black men are bred, exactly as cattle 
are bred in the North, for the market and for sale. Such 
dealing is considered horrible beyond expression in the North. 
In the South the slave can own nothing by law, but in the 
single City of New York there are ten million dollars of 
money belonging to freed colored people. [Loud applause.] 
In the South no colored man can determine — [uproar] — no 
colored man can determine in the South where he will work, 
nor at what he will work ; but in the North, — except in the 
great cities, where we are crowded by foreigners, — in any 
country part the black man may choose his trade and work 
at it, and is just as much protected by the laws as any white 
man in the land. I speak with authority on this point. [Cries 
of " No." ] When I was twelve years old, my father hired 
Charles Smith, a man as black as lampblack, to work on his 
farm. I slept with him in the same room. [ " Oh, oh." ] Ah, 
that don't suit you. [Uproar.] Now, you see, the South 
comes out. [Loud laughter.] I ate with him at the same 
table, I sang with him out of the same hymn-book — 
[ " Good." ] ; I cried, when he prayed over me at night; and 
if I had serious impressions of religion early in life, they 
were due to the fidelity and example of that poor humble 
farm laborer, black as Charles Smith. [Tremendous uproar 
and cheers.] In the South, no matter what injury a colored 
man may receive, he is not allowed to appear in court nor to 
testify against a white man. [A voice : " That 's a fact." ] In 
every single court of the North a respectable colored man is 
as good a witness as if his face were white as an angel's robe. 



274 The Making of an Oration 

[Applause and laughter.] I ask any truthful and considerate 
man whether, in this contrast, it does not appear that, though 
faults may yet linger in the North uneradicated, the state of 
the negro in the North is not immeasurably better than any- 
where in the South? And now, for the first time in the his- 
tory of America — [great interruption], — for the first time 
in the history of the United States a colored man has received 
a commission under the broad seal and signature of the 
President of the United States. This day — [renewed inter- 
ruption] — this day, Frederick Douglas, of whom you all 
have heard here, is an officer of the United States — [loud 
applause] — a commissioner sent down to organize colored 
regiments on Jefferson Davis's farm in Mississippi. [Uproar 
and applause, and a voice. " You put them in the front of 
the battle, too." ] There is another fact that I wish to allude 
to — not for the sake of reproach or blame, but by way of 
claiming your more lenient consideration — and that is, that 
slavery was entailed upon us by your action. Against the 
earnest protests of the colonists the then Government of Grea^t 
Britain — I will concede not knowing what were the mischiefs 
— ignorantly, but in point of fact, forced slave traffic on the 
unwilling colonists. [Great uproar, in the midst of which one 
individual was lifted up and carried out of the room amidst 
cheers and hisses.] 

The Chairman : If you would only sit down no disturb- 
ance would take place. 

The disturbance having subsided, — 

Mr. Beecher said: I was going to ask you, suppose 
a child is born with hereditary disease; suppose this disease 
was entailed upon him by parents who had contracted it by 
their own misconduct, would it be fair that those parents, that 
had brought into the world the diseased child, should rail at 
that child because it was diseased? ["No, no."] Would 
not the child have a right to turn round and say, " Father, 



Speeches for Careful Study 275 

it was your fault that I had it, and you ought to be pleased 
to be patient with my deficiencies." [Applause and hisses, 
and cries of " order " ; great interruption and great disturb- 
ance here took place on the right of the platform; and the 
chairman said that if the persons around the unfortunate 
individual who had caused the disturbance would allow him 
to speak alone, but not assist him in making the disturbance, 
it might soon be put an end to. The interruption was con- 
tinued until another person was carried out of the hall.] 
Mr. Beecher continued: I do not ask that you should justify 
slavery in us, because it was wrong in you two hundred years 
ago; but having ignorantly been the means of fixing it upon 
us, now that we are struggling with mortal struggles to free 
ourselves from it, we have a right to your tolerance, your 
patience, and charitable construction. I am every day asked 
when this war will end. I wish I could tell you ; but remem- 
ber slavery is the cause of the war. Slavery has been working 
for more than one hundred years, and a chronic evil cannot 
be suddenly cured; and war is the remedy. You must be 
patient to have the conflict long enough to cure the inveterate 
hereditary sore. [Hisses, loud applause, and a voice : " We '11 
stop it." ] But of one thing I think I may give you assurance 
— this war won't end until the cancer of slavery is cut out 
by the roots. [Loud applause, hisses, and tremendous up- 
roar.] I will read you a word from President Lincoln. 
[Renewed uproar.] It will be printed whether you hear it 
or hear it not. [Hear, and cries of " Read, read." ] Yes, I 
will read. " A talk with President Lincoln revealed to me a 
great growth of wisdom. For instance, he said he was not 
going to press the colonization idea any longer, nor the grad- 
ual scheme of emancipation, expressing himself sorry that 
the Missourians had postponed emancipation for seven years. 
He said, ' Tell your anti-slavery friends that I am coming 
out all right/ He is desirous that the border states shall 



276 The Making of an Oration 

form free constitutions, recognizing the proclamation, and 
thinks this will be made feasible by calling on loyal men." 
[A voice: "What date is that letter?" and interruption.] 
Ladies and gentlemen, I have finished the exposition of this 
troubled subject. [Renewed and continued interruption.] No 
man can unveil the future ; no man can tell what revolutions 
are about to break upon the world ; no man can tell what des- 
tiny belongs to France, nor to any of the European powers; 
but one thing is certain, that in the exigencies of the future 
there will be combinations and re-combinations, and that 
those nations that are of the same faith, the same blood, and 
the same substantial interests, ought not to be alienated from 
each other, but ought to stand together. I do not say that 
you ought not to be in the most friendly alliance with France 
or with Germany; but I do say that your own children, the 
offspring of England, ought to be nearer to you than any 
people of strange tongue. [A voice ; " Degenerate sons," 
applause and hisses; another voice: "What about the 
Trent f " ] If there had been any feelings of bitterness in 
America, let me tell you they had been excited, rightly or 
wrongly, under the impression that Great Britain was going 
to intervene between us and our own lawful struggle. [A 
voice: "No," and applause.] With the evidence that there 
is no such intention all bitter feelings will pass away. We 
do not agree with the recent doctrine of neutrality as a 
question of law. But it is past, and we are not disposed to 
raise that question. We accept it now as a fact, and we say 
that the utterance of Lord Russell at Blairgowrie — [Applause, 
hisses, and a voice : " What about Lord Brougham ? " ] — 
together with the declaration of the government in stopping 7 
war-steamers here — [great uproar, and applause] — has 
gone far toward quieting every fear and removing every ap- 
prehension from our minds. [Uproar and shouts of applause.] 
And now in the future it is the work of every good man and 



Speeches for Careful Study 277 

patriot not to create divisions, but to do the things that will 
make for peace. On our part it shall be done. [Applause 
and hisses, and " No, no." ] On your part it ought to be 
done; and when in any of the convulsions that come upon 
the world, Great Britain finds herself struggling single-handed 
against the gigantic powers that spread oppression and dark- 
ness — [applause, hisses, and uproar] — there ought to be such 
cordiality that she can turn and say to her first-born and most 
illustrious child, " Come ! " [ " Hear, hear," applause, tremen- 
dous cheers, and uproar.] I will not say that England cannot 
again, as hitherto, single-handed manage any power — [ap- 
plause and uproar] — but I will say that England and America 
together for religion and liberty — [A voice : " Soap, soap," 
uproar, and great applause] — are a match for the world. 
[Applause; a voice: "They don't want any more soft 
soap." ] 

Now, gentlemen and ladies, — [A voice: "Sam Slick"; 
and another voice : " Ladies and gentlemen, if you please." ] 
— when I came I was asked whether I would answer ques- 
tions, and I very readily consented to do so, as I had in other 
places; but I will tell you it was because I expected to have 
the opportunity of speaking with some sort of ease and quiet. 
[A voice : " So you have." ] I have for an hour and a half 
spoken against a storm, and you yourselves are witnesses 
that, by the interruption I have been obliged to strive with my 
voice, so that I no longer have the power to control this as- 
sembly. [Applause.] And although I am in spirit perfectly 
willing to answer any question, and more than glad of the 
chance, yet I am by this very unnecessary opposition tonight 
incapacitated physically from doing it. [A voice : " Why 
did Lincoln delay the proclamation of slavery so long?" — 
Another voice : " Habeas Corpus." A piece of paper was here 
handed up to Mr. Beecher.] I am asked a question. I will 
answer this one. " At the auction of sittings in your church, 



278 The Making of an Oration 

can the negroes bid on equal terms with the whites ? " 
[Cries of " No, no." ] Perhaps you know better than I do. 
But I declare that they can. [ " Hear, hear," and applause. ] 
I declare that, at no time for ten years past — without any 
rule passed by the trustees, and without even a request from 
me — no decent man or woman has ever found molestation 
or trouble in walking into my church and sitting where he or 
she pleased. [ " Are any of the office-bearers in your church 
negroes ? " ] No, not to my knowledge. Such has been the 
practical doctrine of amalgamation in the South that it is 
very difficult now-a-days to tell who is a negro. Whenever a 
majority of my people want a negro to be an officer, he will 
be one ; and I am free to say that there are a great many men 
that I know who are abundantly capable of honoring any office 
of trust in the gift of our church. But while there are none 
in my church there is in Columbia county a little church where 
a negro man, being the ablest business man, and the wealthi- 
est man in that town, is not only a ruler and elder of the 
church, but also contributes about two-thirds of all the ex- 
penses of it. [ Voice : " That is the exception, not the rule." ] 
I am answering these questions, you see, out of gratuitous 
mercy ; I am not bound to do so. It is asked whether Pennsyl- 
vania was not carried for Mr. Lincoln on account of his 
advocacy of the Morrill tariff, and whether the tariff was not 
one of the planks of the Chicago platform, on which Mr. 
Lincoln was elected. I had a great deal to do with that elec- 
tion; but I tell you that whatever local — [Here the interrup- 
tions became so noisy, that it was found impossible to proceed. 
The Chairman asked how they could expect Mr. Beecher to 
answer questions amid such a disturbance. When order had 
been restored, the lecturer proceeded.] — I am not afraid to 
leave the treatment I have received at this meeting to the 
impartial judgment of every fair-playing Englishman. When 
I am asked questions, gentlemanly courtesy requires that I 



Speeches for Careful Study 279 

should be permitted to answer them — [A voice from the 
farther end of the room shouted something about the inhabi- 
tants of Liverpool.] I know that it was in the placards re- 
quested to give Mr. Beecher a reception that should make him 
understand what the opinion of Liverpool was about him. 
[ " No, no," and " Yes, yes." ] There are two sides to every 
question, and Mr. Beecher's opinion about the treatment of 
Liverpool's citizens is just as much as your opinion about the 
treatment of Mr. Beecher. Let me say, that if you wish me to 
answer questions you must be still; for if I am interrupted, 
that is the end of the matter. [ " Hear, hear," and " Bravo." ] 
I have this to say, that I have no doubt the Morrill tariff, or 
that which is now called so, did exercise a great deal of influ- 
ence, not alone in Pennsylvania, but in many other parts of 
the country, because there are many sections of our country — 
those especially where the manufacture of iron or wool are 
the predominating industries — that are very much in favor 
of protective tariffs ; but the thinking men and the influential 
men of both parties are becoming more and more in favor 
of freetrade. " Can a negro ride in a public vehicle in New 
York with a white man ? " I reply that there are times when 
politicians stir up the passions of the lower classes of men 
and the foreigners, and there are times just on the eve of an 
election when the prejudice against the colored man is stirred 
up and excited, in which they will be disturbed in any part of 
the city; but taking the period of the year throughout, one 
year after another, there are but one or two of the city horse- 
railroads in which a respectable colored man will be molested 
in riding through the city. It is only on one railroad that 
this happened, and it is one which I have in the pulpit and 
press always held up to severe reproof. At the Fulton Ferry 
there are two lines of omnibuses, one white and the other 
blue. I had been accustomed to go in them indifferently ; but 
one day I saw a little paper stuck upon one of them, saying 



280 The Making of an Oration 

" Colored people not allowed to ride in this omnibus." I 
instantly got out. There are men who stand at the door of 
these two omnibus lines, urging passengers into one or the 
other. I am very well known to all of them, and the next 
day, when I came to the place, the gentleman serving asked 
" Won't you ride, sir ? " " No," I said, " I am too much of 
a negro to ride in that omnibus." [Laughter.] I do not know 
whether this had any influence, but I do know, that after a 
fortnight's time I had occasion to look in, and the placard was 
gone. I called the attention of every one I met to that fact, 
and said to them, " Don't ride in that omnibus, which violates 
your principles, and my principles, and common decency at 
the same time." I say still further, that in all New England 
there is not a railway where a colored man cannot ride as 
freely as a white man. In the whole city of New York, a 
colored man taking a stage or railway will never be incon- 
venienced or suffer any discourtesy. Ladies and gentlemen, 
I bid you good evening. 

NOTES ON BEECHER'S SPEECH AT LIVERPOOL 

1. The boundary line between Pennsylvania and Virginia. 
Taken as standing for the boundary between slave and free states. 

2. In the towns where Mr. Beecher spoke such placards were 
scattered broadcast by the friends of secession for the purpose of 
hindering the speaker from having a hearing. 

3. The skill with which the speaker wrestled with the mob, 
packed with rowdies determined to break up the meeting, has 
rarely been equalled. Without compromising, with perfect cour- 
tesy, with unfaltering patience, he struggled for a hearing, appeal- 
ing to the traditional admiration of Englishmen for fair play. 
And at last he conquered. 

4. Notice how the speaker prepares for his specific application 
bv laying down certain general principles. 

5. How are these concrete illustrations more effective than 
would be merely the general statement of the principle? 

6. It will be suggestive to study the skill with which the 
speaker in much of his argument appeals at once to both the 
interests and the spirit of liberty of his hearers. 

7. Steamers that were building for the use of the Confederacy, 
thus violating the laws of neutrality. 

8. This oration should be studied and a plan made of it. 



THE PUBLIC DUTY OF EDUCATED MEN 

BY 

George William Curtis 

(The following speech was an oration pronounced at the com- 
mencement exercises of Union College, Schenectady, New York, 
June 27, 1877. Mr. Curtis was one of the most popular speak- 
ers of his day, and in the theme of this speech he found a subject 
congenial to his own mind and one upon which he often spoke. 
This address should be carefully studied in both its plan and its 
style, as an example of the type that appeals to the practical 
American mind of today.) 

It is with diffidence that I rise to add any words of mine 
to the music of these younger voices. This day, gentlemen 
of the graduating class, is especially yours. It is a day of high 
hope and expectation, and the counsels that fall from older 
lips should be carefully weighed, lest they chill the ardor of 
a generous enthusiasm or stay the all-conquering faith of 
youth that moves the world. To those who, constantly and 
actively engaged in a thousand pursuits, are still persuaded 
that educated 1 intelligence moulds states and leads mankind, 
no day in the year is more significant, more inspiring, than 
this of the college commencement. It matters not at what 
college it may be celebrated. It is the same at all. We stand 
here, indeed, beneath these college walls, beautiful for situa- 
tion, girt at this moment with the perfumed splendor of mid- 
summer, and full of tender memories and joyous associa- 
tions to those who hear me. But on this day, and on other 
days, at a hundred other colleges, this summer sun beholds 
the same spectacle of eager and earnest throngs. The faith 

281 



282 The Making of an Oration 

that we hold, they also cherish. It is the same God that is 
worshipped at different altars. It is the same benediction 
that descends upon every reverent head and believing heart. 
In this annual celebration of faith in the power and the re- 
sponsibility of educated men, all the colleges in the country, 
in whatever state, of whatever age, of whatever religious 
sympathy or direction, form but one great Union University. 

But the interest of the day is not that of mere study, of 
sound scholarship as an end, of good books for their own 
sake, but of education as a power in human affairs, of edu- 
cated men as« an influence in the commonwealth. " Tell me," 
said an American scholar of Goethe, the many-sided, " what 
did he ever do for the cause of man ? " The scholar, the 
poet, the philosopher, are men among other men. From 
these unavoidable social relations spring opportunities and 
duties. How do they use them? How do they discharge 
them? Does the scholar show in his daily walk that he has 
studied the wisdom of ages in vain? Does the poet sing of 
angelic purity and lead an unclean life? Does the philosopher 
peer into other worlds and fail to help this world upon its 
way? Four years before our Civil War the same scholar — 
it was Theodore Parker — said sadly, " If our educated men 
had done their duty, we should not now be in the ghastly 
condition we bewail. " The theme of today seems to me to 
be prescribed by the occasion. It is the festival of the depart- 
ure of a body of educated young men into the world. This 
company of picked recruits marches out with beating drums 
and flying colors to join the army. We who feel that our fate 
is gracious which allowed a liberal training, are here to 
welcome and to advise. On your behalf, Mr. President and 
gentlemen, with your authority, and with all my heart, I shall 
say a word to them and to you of the public duty of educated 
men in America. 

I shall not assume, gentlemen graduates, for I know that 



Speeches for Careful Study 283 

it is not so, that what Dr. Johnson says of the teachers of 
Rasselas and the princes of Abyssinia can be truly said of 
you in your happy valley — " The sages who instructed them 
told them of nothing but the miseries of public life, and 
described all beyond the mountains as regions of calamity 
where discord was always raging, and where man preyed 
upon man." The sages who have instructed you are Ameri- 
can citizens. They know that patriotism has its glorious 
opportunities and its sacred duties. They have not shunned 
the one, and they have well performed the other. In the 
sharpest stress of our awful conflict, a clear voice of patriotic 
warning was heard from these peaceful academic shades, the 
voice of the 2 venerated teacher whom this University still 
freshly deplores, drawing from the wisdom of experience 
stored in his ample learning a lesson of startling cogency and 
power from the history of Greece for the welfare of America. 
This was the discharge of a public duty by an educated 
man. It illustrated an indispensable condition of a progress- 
ive republic, the active, practical interest in politics of the 
most intelligent citizens. Civil and religious liberty in this 
country can be preserved only through the agency of our 
political institutions. But those institutions alone will not 
suffice. 3 It is not the ship so much as the skilful sailing that 
assures the prosperous voyage. American institutions pre- 
suppose not only general honesty and intelligence in the peo- 
ple, but their constant and direct application to public affairs. 
Our system rests upon all the people, not upon a part of them, 
and the citizen who evades his share of the burden betrays his 
fellows. Our safety lies not in our institutions, but in our- 
selves. It was under the forms of the republic that Julius 
Caesar 4 made himself emperor of Rome. It was while pro- 
fessing reverence for the national traditions that James II. 
was destroying religious liberty in England. To labor, said 
the old monks, is to pray. What we earnestly desire we 



284 The Making of an Oration 

earnestly toil for. That she may be prized more truly, 
heaven-eyed 5 Justice flies from us, like the Tartar maid 
from her lovers, and she yields her embrace at last only to 
the swiftest and most daring of her pursuers. 

By the words public duty I do not necessarily mean official 
duty, although it may include that. I mean simply that con- 
stant and active practical participation in the details of 
politics without which, upon the part of the most intelligent 
citizens, the conduct of public affairs falls under the control 
of selfish and ignorant, or crafty and venal men. I mean 
that personal attention — which, as it must be incessant, is 
often wearisome and even repulsive — to the details of politics, 
attendance at meetings, service upon committees, care and 
trouble and expense of many kinds, patient endurance of re- 
buffs, chagrins, ridicules, disappointments, defeats — in a 
word, all those duties and services which, when selfishly and 
meanly performed, stigmatize a man as a mere politician; 
but whose constant, honorable, intelligent, and vigilant per- 
formance is the gradual building, stone by stone and layer 
by layer, of that great temple of self-restrained liberty which 
all generous souls mean that our government shall be. 

Public duty in this country is not discharged, as is so often 
supposed, by voting. A man may vote regularly and still 
fail essentially of his political duty, as the Pharisee, who 
gave tithes of all that he possessed and fasted three times 
in the week, yet lacked the very heart of religion. When an 
American citizen is content with voting merely, he consents 
to accept what is often a doubtful alternative. This, which 
was formerly less necessary, is now indispensable. In a rural 
community such as this country was a hundred years ago, 
whoever was nominated for office was known to his neigh- 
bors, and the consciousness of that knowledge was a con- 
servative influence in determining nominations. But in the 
local elections of the great cities of today, elections that 



Speeches for Careful Study 285 

control taxation and expenditure, the mass of the voters 
vote in absolute ignorance of the candidates. The citizen 
who supposes that he does all his duty when he votes places 
a premium upon political knavery. Thieves welcome him to 
the polls and offer him a choice, which he has done nothing 
to prevent, between Jeremy Diddler 6 and Dick Turpin. 7 The 
party cries for which he is responsible are, " Turpin and Hon- 
esty," " Diddler and Reform." And within a few years, as 
a result of this indifference to the details of public duty, the 
most powerful politician in the Empire State of the Union 
was Jonathan Wild the Great, 8 the captain of a band of 
plunderers. I know that it is said that the knaves have taken 
the honest men in a net, and have contrived machinery which 
will inevitably grind only the grist of rascals. The answer 
is, that when honest men did once what they ought to do 
always, the machine was netted and their machine was broken. 
To say that in this country the rogues must rule, is to defy 
history and to despair of the Republic. It is to repeat the 
imbecile executive cries of sixteen years ago, " Oh, dear ! the 
States have no right to go ! " and " Oh, dear ! the nation has 
no right to help itself." Let the Union, stronger than ever 
and unstained with national wrong, teach us the power of 
patriotic virtue — and Ludlow Street jail console those who 
suppose that American politics must necessarily be a game 
of thieves and bullies. 

If ignorance and corruption and intrigue control the 
primary meeting and manage the convention and dictate the 
nomination, the fault is in the honest and intelligent workshop 
and office, in the library and the parlor, in the church and 
the school. When these are as constant and faithful to their 
political rights as the slums and the grogshops, the poolrooms 
and the kennels; when the educated, industrious, temperate, 
thrifty citizens are as zealous and prompt and unfailing in 
political duty as the ignorant and venal and mischievous, or 



286 The Making of an Oration 

when it is plain that they cannot be roused to their duty, then, 
but not until then — if ignorance and corruption always carry 
the day — there can be no honest question that the Republic 
has failed. But let us not be deceived. While good men sit 
at home, not knowing that there is anything to be done, nor 
caring to know ; cultivating a feeling that politics are tire- 
some and dirty, and politicians vulgar bullies and bravoes; 
half persuaded that a republic is the contemptible rule of a 
mob, and secretly longing for a splendid and vigorous despot- 
ism — then remember it is not a government mastered by 
ignorance, it is government betrayed by intelligence; it is 
not a victory of the slums, it is the surrender of the schools ; 
it is not that bad men are brave, but that good men are in- 
fidels and cowards. 

But, gentlemen, when you come to address yourselves to 
these primary public duties, your first surprise and dismay 
will be the discovery that, in a country where education is 
declared to be the hope of its institutions, the higher educa- 
tion is often practically held to be almost a disadvantage. 
You will go from these halls to hear a very common sneer at 
college-bred men; to encounter a jealousy of education, as 
making men visionary and pedantic and impracticable; to 
confront a belief that there is something enfeebling in the 
higher education, and that self-made men, as they are called, 
are the sure stay of the state. But what is really meant by a 
self-made man? It is a man of native sagacity and strong 
character, who was taught, it is proudly said, only at the 
plough or the anvil or the bench. He was schooled by adver- 
sity, and was polished by hard attrition with men. He is 
Benjamin Franklin, the printer's boy, or Abraham Lincoln, 
the rail splitter. They never went to college, but nevertheless, 
like Agamemnon, they were kings of men, and the world 
blesses their memory. 

So it does ; but the sophistry here is plain enough, although 



Speeches for Careful Study 287 

it is not always detected. Great genius and great character 
always make their own career. But because Walter Scott 9 
was dull at school, is a parent to see with joy that his son 
is a dunce? Because Lord Chatham was of a towering con- 
ceit, must we infer that pompous vanity portends a compre- 
hensive statesmanship that will fill the world with the splendor 
of its triumphs? Because Sir Robert Walpole gambled and 
swore and boozed at Houghton, are we to suppose that gross 
sensuality and coarse contempt of human nature are the es- 
sential secret of a power that defended liberty against Tory 
intrigue and priestly politics? Was it because Benjamin 
Franklin was not college-bred that he drew the lightning 
from the heaven and tore the scepter from the tyrant? Was 
it because Abraham Lincoln had little schooling that his great 
heart beat true to God and man, lifting him to free a race and 
die for his country ? Because men naturally great have done 
great service in the world without advantages, does it fol- 
low that lack of advantage is the secret of success? Was 
Pericles a less sagacious leader of the state, during forty 
years of Athenian glory, because he was thoroughly accom- 
plished in every grace of learning? Or, swiftly passing from 
the Athenian agora to the Boston town-meeting, behold Sam- 
uel Adams, tribune of New England against Old England, 
of America against Europe, of liberty against despotism. 
Was his power enfeebled, his fervor chilled, his patriotism 
relaxed, by his college education ? No, no ; they were strength- 
ened, kindled, confirmed. Taking his Master's degree one 
hundred and thirty-four years ago, thirty-three years before 
the Declaration of Independence, Samuel Adams, then twenty- 
one years old, declared in a Latin discourse — the first flashes 
of the fire that afterwards blazed in Faneuil Hall and kindled 
America — that it is lawful to resist the supreme magistrate 
if the commonwealth cannot otherwise be preserved. In 
the very year that Jefferson was born, the college boy, Samuel 



288 The Making of an Oration 

Adams, on a commencement day like this, struck the key- 
note of American independence, which still stirs the heart of 
man with its music. 

Or within our own century, look at the great modern states- 
men who have shaped the politics of the world. They were 
educated men; were they therefore, visionary, pedantic, im- 
practicable? Cavour, whose monument is United Italy — 
one from the Alps to Tarentum, from the lagoons of Venice 
to the gulf of Salerno ; Bismarck, who has raised the German 
Empire from a name to a fact ; Gladstone, today the incarnate 
heart and conscience of England — they are the perpetual 
refutation of the sneer that higher education weakens men for 
practical affairs. Trained themselves, such men know the 
value of training. All countries, all ages, all men are their 
teachers. The broader their education, the wider the horizon 
of their thought and observation; the more affluent their 
resources, the more humane their policy. Would Samuel 
Adams have been a truer popular leader had he been less an 
educated man? Would Walpole less truly have served his 
country had he been, with all his capacities, a man whom 
England could have revered and loved? Could Gladstone so 
sway England with his fervent eloquence, as the moon the 
tides, were he a gambling, swearing, boozing squire like 
Walpole? There is no sophistry more poisonous to the state, 
no folly more stupendous and demoralizing, than the notion 
that the purest character and the highest education are incom- 
patible with the most commanding mastery of men and the 
most efficient administration of affairs. 

Undoubtedly a practical and active interest in politics will 
lend you to party association and cooperation. Great public 
results — the repeal of the corn laws in England, the aboli- 
tion of slavery in America — are due to that organization of 
effort and concentration of aim which arouse, instruct, and 
inspire the popular heart and will. This is the spring of 



Speeches for Careful Study 289 

party, and those who earnestly seek practical results instinct- 
ively turn to this agency of united action. But in this tend- 
ency, useful in the state as the fire upon the household, lurks, 
as in that fire, the deadliest peril. Here is our Republic — it 
is a ship with towering canvas spread, sweeping before the 
prosperous gale over a foaming and sparkling sea; it is a 
lightning train darting with awful speed along the edge of 
dizzy abysses and across bridges that quiver over unsounded 
gulfs. Because we are Americans, we have no peculiar charm, 
no magic spell, to stay the eternal laws. Our safety lies alone 
in cool self-possession, directing the forces of wind and wave 
and fire. If once the madness to which the excitement tends 
usurps control, the catastrophe is inevitable. And so deep is 
the conviction that sooner or later this madness must seize 
every republic that the most plausible conviction of the per- 
manence of the American government is the belief that party 
spirit cannot be restrained. It is indeed a master passion, 
but its control is the true conservatism of the Republic and 
of happy human progress ; and its men are made familiar by 
education with the history of its ghastly catastrophe, men 
with the proud courage of independence, who are to temper by 
lofty action, born of that knowledge, the ferocity of party 
spirit. 

The first object of concerted political action is the highest 
welfare of the country. But the conditions of party associa- 
tions are such that the means are constantly and easily sub- 
stituted for the end. The sophistry is subtle and seductive. 
Holding the ascendency of his party essential to the national 
welfare, the zealous partisan merges patriotism in party. He 
insists that not to sustain the party is to betray the country, 
and against all honest doubt and reasonable hesitation and 
reluctance he vehemently urges that quibbles of conscience 
must be sacrificed to the public good ; that wise and practical 
men will not be squeamish; that every soldier in the army 



290 The Making of an Oration 

cannot indulge his own whims; and that if the majority may 
justly prevail in determining the government, it must not be 
questioned in the control of a party. 

This spirit adds moral coercion to sophistry. It denounces 
as a traitor him who protests against party tyranny, and it 
makes unflinching adherence to what is called regular party 
action the condition of the gratification of honorable political 
ambition. Because a man who sympathizes with the party 
aims refuses to vote for a thief, this spirit scorns him as a rat 
and a renegade. Because he holds to principles and law 
against party expediency and dictation, he is proclaimed as 
the betrayer of his country, justice, and humanity. Because 
he tranquilly insists upon deciding for himself when he must 
dissent from his party, he is reviled as a popinjay and a vis- 
ionary fool. Seeking with honest purpose only the welfare 
of his country, the hot air around him hums with the cry of 
" the grand old party," " the traditions of the party," " loy- 
alty to the party," " the future of the party," " servant of the 
party " ; and he sees and hears the gorged and portly money- 
changers 10 in the temple usurping the very divinity of the 
God. Young hearts, be not dismayed ! If ever any one of 
you shall be the man so denounced, do not forget that your 
own individual convictions are the whip 10 of small cords 
which God has put into your hands to expel the blasphemers. 

The same party spirit naturally denies the patriotism of 
its opponents. Identifying itself with the country, it regards 
all others as public enemies. This is substantially revolution- 
ary politics. It is the condition of France, where in its own 
words the revolution is permanent. Instead of regarding the 
other party as legitimate opponents — in the English phrase, 
His Majesty's opposition — lawfully seeking a different policy 
under the government, it decries that party as a conspiracy 
plotting the overthrow of the government itself. History is 
lurid with the wasting: fires of this madness. We need not 



Speeches for Careful Study 291 

look for that of other lands. Our own is full of it. It is 
painful to turn to the opening years of the Union, and see 
how the great men whom we are taught to revere, and to 
whose fostering care the beginning of the Republic was in- 
trusted, fanned their hatred and suspicion of each other. Do 
not trust the flattering voices that whisper of a Golden Age 
behind us and bemoan our own as a degenerate day. The 
castles of hope always shine along the horizon. Our fathers 
saw theirs where we are standing. We behold ours where 
our fathers stood. But pensive regret for the heroic past, 
like eager anticipation of the future, shows only that the 
vision of a loftier life forever allures the human soul. We 
think our fathers too have been wiser than we, and their day 
more enviable. But eighty years ago the Federalists abhorred 
their opponents as Jacobins, and thought Robespierre and 
Marat no worse than Washington's secretary of state. Their 
opponents retorted that the Federalists were plotting to es- 
tablish a monarchy by force of arms. The New England 
pulpit anathematized Tom Jefferson as an atheist and a 
satyr. Jefferson denounced John Jay as a rogue, and the 
chief newspaper of the opposition, on the morning that 
Washington retired from the presidency, thanked God that 
the country was now rid of the man who was the source 
of all its misfortunes. There is no mire in which party spirit 
wallows today with which our fathers were not befouled; 
and how little sincere the vituperation was, how shallow a 
fury, appears when Jefferson and Adams had retired from 
public life. Then they corresponded placidly and familiarly, 
each at last conscious of the other's fervent patriotism; and 
when they died, they were lamented in common by those who 
in their names had flown at each other's throats, as the patri- 
archal Castor and Pollux 11 of the pure age of our politics, 
now fixed as a constellation of hope in our heaven. 

The same brutal spirit showed itself at the time of Andrew 



292 The Making of an Oration 

Johnson's 12 impeachment. Impeachment is a proceeding to 
be instituted only for great public reasons, which should, 
presumptively, command universal support. To prostitute 
the power of impeachment to a mere party purpose would 
readily lead to the reversal of the result of an election. But 
it was made a party measure. The party was to be whipped 
into its support ; and when certain broke the party yoke upon 
their necks, and voted according to their convictions, as hon- 
orable men always will whether the party whips like it or not, 
one of the whippersin exclaimed of the patriotism, the strug- 
gle of obedience to which cost one senator, at least, his life, 
" If there is anything worse than the treachery, it is the 
cant which pretends that it is the result of conscientious 
conviction ; the pretense of a conscience is quite unbearable." 
This was the very acridity of bigotry, which in other times 
and countries raised the cruel tribunal of the Inquisition and 
burned opponents for the glory of God. The party madness 
that dictated these words, and the sympathy that approved 
them, were treason not only to the country, but to well ordered 
human society. Murder may destroy great statesmen, but 
corruption makes great states impossible, and this was an 
attempt at the most insidious corruption. The man who at- 
tempts to terrify a senator of the United States into casting 
a dishonest vote, by stigmatizing him as a hypocrite and 
devoting him to party hatred, is only a more plausible rascal 
than his opponent who gives Pat O'Flanigan a fraudulent 
naturalization paper or buys his vote with a dollar or a glass 
of whiskey. Whatever the offenses of the President may have 
been, they were as nothing when compared with the party 
spirit which declared that it was tired of the intolerable cant 
of honesty. So the sneering Cavalier was tired of the cant 
of the Puritan conscience; but the cant of which proved in- 
justice and coroneted privilege were tired, has been for three 
centuries the invincible bodyguard of civil and religious 
liberty. 



Speeches for Careful Study 293 

Gentlemen, how dire a calamity the same party spirit was 
preparing for the country within a few months we can now 
perceive with amazement and with hearty thanksgiving for 
our great deliverance. The ordeal 13 of last winter was the 
severest strain yet applied to republican institutions. It was 
a mortal strain along the very fiber of our system. It was not 
a collision of sections, nor a conflict of principles of civiliza- 
tion. It was a supreme and triumphant test of American 
patriotism. Greater than the declaration of independence 
by colonies hopelessly alienated from the crown and already 
in arms, greater than emancipation, as a military expedient, 
amid the throes of civil war, was the peaceful and reason- 
able consent of two vast parties — in a crisis plainly fore- 
seen and criminally neglected, a crisis in which each party 
asserted its solution to be indisputable — to devise a lawful 
settlement of the tremendous contest, a settlement which, 
through furious storms of disappointment and rage has been 
religiously respected. We are told that our politics are 
mean — that already, in its hundredth year, the decadence 
of the American Republic appears and the hope of the world 
is clouded. But tell me, scholars, in what high hour of Greece, 
when, as DeWitt Clinton declared, " the herb-woman of 
Athens could criticise the phraseology of Demosthenes, and 
the meanest artisan could pronounce judgment upon the works 
of Appelles and Phidias," or at what proud epoch of imperial 
Rome, or millennial moment of the fierce Italian republics, 
was ever so momentous a party difference so wisely, so peace- 
fully, so humanely composed? Had the sophistry of party 
prevailed; had each side resolved that not to insist upon its 
own claim at every hazard was what the mad party spirit 
of each side declared it to be — a pusilanimous surrender; 
had the spirit of Marius mastered one party and that of 
Sylla the other, this waving valley of the Mohawk would 
not today murmur with the music of industry, these tranquil 



294 The Making of an Oration 

voices of scholars blending with its happy harvest song; it 
would have smoked with fraternal war, and this shuddering 
river would have run red through desolated meadows and 
by burning homes. 

It is because these consequences are familiar to the knowl- 
edge of educated and thoughtful men that such men are con- 
stantly to assuage this party fire and to take care that party 
is always subordinated to patriotism. Perfect party disci- 
pline is the most dangerous weapon of party spirit, for it 
is the abdication of the individual judgment: it is the appli- 
cation to political parties of the Jesuit principle of implicit 
obedience. 

It is for you to help break this withering spell. It is for 
you to assert the independence and the dignity of the indi- 
vidual citizen, and to prove that party was made for the 
voter, not the voter for party. When you are angrily told 
that if you erect your personal whim against the regular party 
behest, you make representative government impossible by 
refusing to accept its conditions, hold fast by your own con- 
science and let the party go. There is not an American mer- 
chant who would send a ship to sea under the command of 
Captain Kidd, 14 however skillful a sailor he might be. Why 
should he vote to send Captain Kidd to the legislature or to 
put him in command of the ship of state because his party 
directs? The party which today nominates Captain Kidd will 
tomorrow nominate Judas Iscariot, and tomorrow, as today, 
party spirit will spurn you as a traitor for refusing to sell 
your master. " I tell you," said an ardent and well meaning 
partisan, speaking of a closely contested election in another 
state — "I tell you it is a nasty state, and I hope we have 
done nasty work enough to carry it." But if your state has 
been carried by nasty means this year, success will require 
nastier next year, and the nastiest means will always carry. 
The party may win, but the state will have been lost, for there 



Speeches for Careful Study 295 

are successes which are failures. When a man is sitting upon 
the bough of a tree and diligently sawing it off between him- 
self and the trunk, he may succeed, but his success will break 
his neck. 

The remedy for the constant excess of party spirit lies, 
and lies alone, in the courageous independent citizen. The 
only way, for instance, to procure the party nomination of 
good men, is for every self-respecting voter to refuse to 
vote for bad men. In the mediaeval theology the devils feared 
nothing so much as the drop of holy water and the sign of 
the cross, by which they were exorcised. The evil spirits of 
party fear nothing so much as bolting and scratching. In hoc 
signo vinces. If a farmer would reap a good crop, he scratches 
the weeds out of his field. If we would have good men upon 
the ticket, we must scratch bad men off. If the scratching 
breaks down the party, let it break; for the success of the 
party by such means would break down the country. The 
evil spirits must be taught by means that they can understand. 
" Them fellers," said the captain of a canal boat of his men 
— " Them fellers never think you mean a thing until you 
kick 'em. They feel that, and understand." 

It is especially necessary for us to perceive the vital rela- 
tion of individual courage and character to the common wel- 
fare, because ours is a government of public opinion, and 
public opinion is but the aggregate of individual thought. 
We have the awful responsibility as a community of doing 
what we choose, and it is of the last importance that we 
choose to do what is wise and right. In the early days of 
the antislavery agitation a meeting was called at Faneuil 
Hall, in Boston, which a good-natured mob of sailors was 
hired to suppress. They took possession of the floor and 
danced breakdowns and shouted choruses and refused to hear 
any of the orators upon the platform. The most eloquent 
pleaded with them in vain. They were urged by the memo- 



296 The Making of an Oration 

ries of the Cradle of Liberty, for the honor of Massachusetts, 
for their honor as our Boston boys, to respect liberty of speech. 
But they still laughed and sang and danced, and were proof 
against every appeal. At last a man suddenly arose from 
among themselves and began to speak. Struck by his tone and 
quaint appearance, and with the thought that he might be one 
of themselves, the mob became suddenly still. " Well, fel- 
low citizens," he said, " I would n't be quiet if I did n't want 
to." The words were greeted with a roar of delight from the 
mob, which supposed it had found its champion, and the ap- 
plause was unceasing for five minutes, during which the 
orator tranquilly awaited his chance to continue. The wish 
to hear more hushed the tumult, and when the hall was still 
he resumed, " No, I certainly would n't stop if I had n't a 
mind to ; but then, if I were you I would have a mind to ! " 
The oddity of the remark and the earnestness of the tone 
held the crowd silent, and the speaker continued : " Not be- 
cause this is Faneuil Hall, nor for the honor of Massa- 
chusetts, nor because you are Boston boys, but because you 
are men, and because honorable and generous men always 
love fair play." The mob was conquered. Free speech and 
fair play were secured. Public opinion can do what it has a 
mind to in this country. If it be debased and demoralized, 
it is the most odious of tyrants. It is Nero and Caligula 
multiplied by millions. Can there be a more stringent public 
duty for every man — and the greater the intelligence the 
greater the duty — than to care, by all the influence he can 
command, that the country, the majority, public opinion, shall 
have a mind to do only what is just and pure and humane? 
Gentlemen, leaving this college to take your part in the 
discharge of the duties of American citizenship, every sign 
encourages and inspires. The year that is now ending, the 
year that opens the second century of our history, has fur- 
nished the supreme proof that in a country of rigorous party 



Spc 



c£c:. . ly 297 



division the pure 'y is 

the pledge oi" a pro: No n rvor 

or party fidelity 01 party di could fully restore a 

country torn and distracted by the fierce debate of a century 
and the convulsion of civil war ; nothing less than a patriotism 
all-embracing as the summer air could heal a wound so wide. 
I know — no man better — how hard it is for earnest men 
to separate their country from their party, or their religion 
from their sect. But nevertheless the welfare of country is 
more precious than mere victory of party, as truth is more 
precious than the interest of any sect. You will hear this 
patriotism scorned as an impracticable theory, as the dream 
of a cloister, as the whim of a fool. But such was the folly 
of the Spartan Leonidas, staying with his three hundred the 
Persian horde and teaching Greece the self-reliance that saved 
her. Such was the folly of the Swiss Arnold von Winkelried, 
gathering into his own breast the host of Austrian spears, 
making his dead body the bridge of victory for his country- 
men. Such was the folly of the American Nathan Hale, 
gladly risking the seeming disgrace of his name, and griev- 
ing that he had but one life to give for his country. Such 
are the beaconlights of a pure patriotism that burn forever in 
men's memories and answer each other through the illum- 
inated ages. And of the same grandeur, in less heroic and 
poetic form, was the patriotism in recent history. He was the 
leader of a great party and the prime minister of England. 
The character and necessity of party were as plain to him as 
to any man. But when he saw that the national welfare de- 
manded the repeal of the corn-laws which he had always sup- 
ported, he did not quail. Amply avowing the error of a life 
and the duty of avowing it — foreseeing the probable over- 
throw of his party and the bitter execration that must fall 
upon him, he tranquilly did his duty. With the eyes of Eng- 
land fixed upon him in mingled amazement, admiration, and 



298 The Making of an Oration 

indignation, he arose in the House of Commons to perform 
as great a service as any Englishman ever performed for 
his country, and in closing his last speech in favor of the 
repeal, describing the consequences that its mere prospect 
had produced, he loftily exclaimed : " Where there was dis- 
satisfaction, I see contentment; where there was turbulence, 
I see there is peace; where there was disloyalty, I see there 
is loyalty. I see a disposition to confide in you and not to 
agitate questions that are the foundations of your institu- 
tions." When all was over, when he had left office, when 
his party was out of power and the fury of party execration 
against him was spent, his position was greater and nobler 
than it had ever been. Cobden said of him, " Sir Robert Peel 
has lost office, but he has gained a country " ; and Lord 
Dalling said of him, what may truly be said of Washington, 
" Above all parties, himself a party, he had trained his own 
mind into a disinterested sympathy with the intelligence of 
his country." 

A public spirit so lofty is not confined to other ages and 
lands. You are conscious of its stirrings in your souls. It 
calls you to courageous service, and I am here to bid you 
obey the call. Such patriotism may be ours. Let it be your 
parting vow that it shall be yours. Bolingbroke described 
a patriot king in England; I can imagine a patriot president 
in America. I can see him indeed the choice of a party, and 
called to administer the government when sectional jealousy 
is fiercest and party passion most inflamed. I can imagine 
him seeing clearly what justice and humanity, the national 
law and the national welfare require him to do, and resolved 
to do it. I can imagine him patiently enduring not only the 
mad cry of party hate, the taunt of " recreant " and 
" traitor," of " renegade " and " coward," but what is harder 
to bear, the amazement, the doubt, the grief, the denuncia- 
tion, of those as sincerely devoted as he to the common wel- 



Speeches for Careful Study 299 

fare. I can imagine him pushing firmly on, trusting the heart, 
the intelligence, the conscience of his countrymen, healing 
angry wounds, correcting misunderstandings, planting jus- 
tice on surer foundations, and, whether his party rise or fall, 
lifting his country heavenward to a more perfect union, 
prosperity, and peace. This is the spirit of a patriotism that 
girds the commonwealth with the resistless splendor of the 
moral law — the invulnerable panoply of states, the celestial 
secret of a great nation and a happy people. 

NOTES ON THE SPEECH OF GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS 

1. Note the grace and appropriateness with which the speaker 
approaches his theme, which is clearly stated at the end of the 
second paragraph. 

2. Note how the meaning of the theme is exemplified by the 
reference to the " Venerated teacher." Taylor Lewis, the teacher 
alluded to, was a great scholar and professor at Union College, 
who had died but a few weeks before this oration was pro- 
nounced. 

3. Observe how the epigrammatic figure of the ship gives 
meaning and force to the thought. 

4. What quality of style is promoted by the historical illustra- 
tions? 

5. What thought is emphasized by the personification of 
justice? Read the text on the use of figures. 

6. Jeremy Diddler, the name in English literature of a notori- 
ous swindler. 

7. Dick Turpin, a famous highwayman. 

8. Jonathan Wild, a noted English thief and villain. He is 
likened here to William M. Tweed, an infamous " boss " of New 
York City, who was arrested for his crimes and died in Ludlow 
Street jail of that city. 

9. Walter Scott, etc. Note how the historical examples are 
used to show the common prejudice against the scholar in poli- 
tics, and also to reveal the fallacy against such prejudice. How 
does the employment of interrogation add to the effectiveness of 
these examples? 

10. See John II : 14-16. Note the force and suggestiveness of 
tKe allusion. 

11. Castor and Pollux. What is the allusion, and how is it 
applied ? 

12. Andrew Johnson's impeachment. Read an account of that 
trial and note the use of the reference to the orator's thought. 



300 The Making of an Oration 

13. " The ordeal of last winter — this is a reference to the con- 
troversy over the Tilden-Hayes election. Observe how the 
orator takes advantage of current questions to illumine and give 
point to his thought. Observe, also, how he amplifies his idea in 
the paragraph, and by an appeal to the imagination shows what 
might have been the condition had the partisan spirit prevailed. 

14. Captain Kidd, a notorious pirate. 

PLAN OF THE SPEECH OF GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS 

I. Introduction: 

I. Exposition of the term "public duty." 

(1.) What it is, — illustrated by reference to Taylor 

Lewis. 
(2.) What it is not, — 

a. Not necessarily holding office ; 

b. Not merely voting. 

77. "Object": Let educated Americans take an active part in 

public affairs. 
777. Discussion: 

1. Educated Americans should participate in primary meetings. 

(1.) Prejudice against educated men in politics; 
(2.) Refutation of this objection. 

2. Educated Americans should, for effectiveness, act with a 

party. 

3. They should, however, place country before party. 

(1.) Failure to support party will be denounced as treach- 
erous not only to party but to country : illustrations 
from history. 
(2.) Partisanship denies patriotism to its opponents: il- 
lustrations from the Tilden-Hayes contest, and 
from the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson. 

4. Educated men should assuage this partisan spirit : 

(1.) By independence of thought and action; 
(2.) By recognition of the relation between individual 
character and national character. 
IV. Conclusion: Application and appeal to his hearers, with 
illustrations drawn from history — ancient and modern — to 
show that such a lofty public spirit will help to make the 
country what it ought to be. 






THE NEW SOUTH 

BY 

Henry W. Grady 

(Henry W. Grady, at that time the brilliant editor of the 
Atlanta Constitution, was the invited guest of The New England 
Society, at its annual dinner, December 22, 1886. The date was 
near enough to the Civil War to make the stirring scenes of that 
eventful struggle still fresh in the minds of the people, but far 
enough removed to mitigate much of the bitterness of the passions 
that had attended the conflict. The speech that follows was 
recognized as at once the voice of the New South expressive of 
loyalty to the nation and as the utterance of a man entitled to 
be ranked among the very greatest of American orators.) 

" There was a South of slavery and secession — that South 
is dead. There is a South of union and freedom — that 
South, thank God, is living, breathing, growing every hour." 
These words, delivered from the immortal lips of Benjamin 
H. Hill, at Tammany Hall, in 1866, true then, and truer now, 
I shall make my text tonight. 

Mr. President and Gentlemen : Let me express to you my 
appreciation of the kindness by which I am permitted to 
address you. I make this abrupt acknowledgment advisedly, 
for I feel that if, when I raised my provincial voice in this 
ancient and august presence, I could find courage for no more 
than the opening sentence, in that sentence, I had met in a 
rough sense my obligation as a guest, and had perished, so 
to speak, with courtesy on my lips and grace in my heart. 

Permitted, through your kindness, to catch my second 
wind, let me say that I appreciate the significance of being 
the first Southerner to speak at this board, which bears the 

301 



302 The Making of an Oration 

substance, if it surpasses the semblance of original New 
England hospitality, and honors a sentiment that in turn 
honors you, but in which my personality is lost and the 
compliment to my people made plain. 

I bespeak the utmost stretch of your courtesy tonight. I 
am not anxious about those from whom I come. You re- 
member the man whose wife sent him to a neighbor with a 
pitcher of milk, and who, tripping on the top step, fell, with 
such casual interruptions as the landings afforded, into the 
basement ; and while picking himself up, had the pleasure of 
hearing his wife call out: 

" John, did you break the pitcher ? " 

" No, I did n't," said John, " but I be dinged if I do n't." 

So, while those who call" to me from behind may inspire 
me with energy, if not with courage, I ask an indulgent hear- 
ing from you. I beg that you will bring your full faith in 
American fairness and frankness to judgment upon what I 
shall say. There was an old preacher once who told some 
boys of the Bible lesson he was going to read in the morning. 
The boys, finding the place, glued together the connecting 
pages. The next morning he read on the bottom of one page : 
" When Noah was one hundred and twenty years old he took 
unto himself a wife, who was " then turning the page, " one 
hundred and forty cubits long, forty cubits wide, built of 
gopher wood, and covered with pitch inside and out." He 
was naturally puzzled at this. He read it again, verified it, 
and then said : " My friends, this is the first time I ever met 
this in the Bible, but I accept it as an evidence of the asser- 
tion that we are fearfully and wonderfully made." If I 
could get you to hold such faith tonight, I could proceed 
cheerfully to the task I otherwise approach with a sense of 
consecration. 

Pardon me one word, Mr. President, spoken for the sole 
purpose of getting into the volumes that go out annually 



Speeches for Careful Study 303 

freighted with the rich eloquence of your speakers — the fact 
that the Cavalier, 2 as well as the Puritan, was on the conti- 
nent in its early days, and that he was " up and able to be 
about." I have read your books carefully and I find no men- 
tion of that fact, which seems to me an important one for 
preserving a sort of historical equilibrium, if for nothing 
else. 

Let me remind you that the Virginia Cavalier first chal- 
lenged France on this continent, that Cavalier John Smith 
gave New England its very name, and was so pleased with 
the job that he has been handing his own name around ever 
since, and that while Miles Standish was cutting 3 off men's 
ears for courting a girl without her parents' consent, and 
forbade men to kiss their wives on Sunday, the Cavalier was 
courting everything in sight, and that the Almighty had 
vouchsafed great increase to the Cavalier colonies, the huts 
in the wilderness being as full as the nests in the woods. 

But having incorporated the Cavalier as a fact in your 
charming little book, I shall let him work out his own salva- 
tion, as he has always done with engaging gallantry, and we 
will hold no controversy as to his merits. Why should we? 
Neither Puritan nor Cavalier survived as such. The virtues 
and traditions of both happily still live for the inspiration of 
their sons and the saving of the old fashion. Both Puritan 
and Cavalier were lost in the storm of the first Revolution, 
and the American citizen, supplanting both, and stronger 
than either, took possession of the republic bought by their 
common blood and fashioned to wisdom, and charged him- 
self with teaching men government and establishing the voice 
of the people as the voice of God. 

My friend, Doctor Talmage, 4 has told you that the typical 
American has yet to come. Let me tell you that he has 
already come. Great types, like valuable plants, are slow to 
flower and fruit. But from the union of these colonist Puri- 



304 The Making of an Oration 

tans and Cavaliers, from the straightening of their purposes 
and the crossing of their blood, slow perfecting through a 
century, came he who stands as the first typical American, 
the first who comprehended within himself all the strength 
and gentleness, all the majesty and grace of this republic, 
Abraham Lincoln. 5 He was the sum of Puritan and Cav- 
alier ; for in his ardent nature were fused the virtues of both, 
and in his great soul the faults of both were lost. He was 
greater than Puritan, greater than Cavalier, in that he was 
American, and that in his homely form were first gathered 
the vast and thrilling forces of his ideal government, charg- 
ing it with such tremendous meaning, and so elevating it 
above human suffering, that martyrdom, though infamously 
aimed, came as a fitting crown to a life consecrated from 
the cradle to human liberty. Let us, each cherishing the 
traditions and honoring his fathers, build with reverent hands 
to the type of his simple but sublime life, in which all types 
are honored; and in our common glory as Americans there 
will be plenty and some to spare for your forefathers and for 
mine. 

In speaking to the toast with which you have honored me, 
I accept the term, " The New South," as in no sense dispar- 
aging to the Old. Dear to me, sir, is the home of my child- 
hood, and the traditions of my people. I would not, if I 
could, dim the glory they won in peace and war, or by word 
or deed take aught from the splendor and grace of their civili- 
zation, never equaled, and perhaps never to be equaled in its 
chivalric strength and grace. There is a New South, not 
through protest against the Old, but because of new condi- 
tions, new adjustments, and, if you please, new ideas and 
aspirations. It is to this that I address myself, and to the 
consideration of which I hasten, lest it become the Old South 
before I get to it. Age does not endow all things with 
Strength and virtue, nor are all new things to be despised. 



Speeches for Careful Study 305 

The shoemaker who put over his door, " John Smith's shop, 
founded in 1760," was more than matched by his young rival 
across the street who hung out this sign: "Bill Jones. 
Established 1886. No old stock kept in this shop." 

Dr. Talmage has drawn for you, with a master hand, the 
picture of your returning armies. He has told you how, in 
the pomp and circumstance of war, they came back to you, 
marching with proud and victorious tread, reading their 
glory in a nation's eye. Will you bear with me while I tell 
you of another army that sought its home at the close of the 
late war? An army that marched home in defeat and not 
in victory — in pathos and not in splendor, but in glory that 
equaled yours, and to hearts as loving as ever welcomed 
heroes home? Let me picture to you the footsore Confeder- 
ate soldier, as, buttoning up in his faded gray jacket the 
parole which was to bear testimony to his children of his 
fidelity and faith, he turned his face southward from Appo- 
mattox in April, 1865. Think of him as ragged, half starved, 
heavy-hearted, enfeebled by want and wounds, having fought 
to exhaustion, he surrenders his gun, wrings the hands of his 
comrades in silence, and, lifting his tear-stained and pallid 
face for the last time to the graves that dot the old Virginia 
hills, pulls the old gray cap over his brow and begins the slow 
and painful journey. What does he find? — let me ask you 
who went to your homes eager to find, in the welcome you had 
justly earned, full payment for four years' sacrifice — what 
does he find when, having followed the battle-stained cross 
against overwhelming odds, dreading death not half so much 
as surrender, he reaches the home he left so prosperous and 
beautiful? He finds his home in ruins, his farm devastated, 
his slaves free, his stock killed, his barns empty, his trade 
destroyed, his money worthless; his social system, feudal in 
its magnificence, swept away ; his people without law or legal 
status; his comrades slain, and the burdens of others heavy 



306 The Making of an Oration 

on his shoulders. Crushed by defeat, his very traditions gone. 
Without money, credit, employment, material training; and 
besides all this, confronted with the gravest problems that 
ever met human intelligence — the establishment of a status 
for the vast body of his liberated slaves. 

What does he do 6 — this hero in gray, with a heart of 
gold ? Does he sit down in sullenness and despair ? Not for 
a day. Surely God, who had stripped him of his prosperity, 
inspired him in his adversity. As ruin was never before so 
overwhelming, never was restoration swifter. The soldier 
stepped from the trenches into the furrow; the horses that 
had charged Federal guns marched before the plow, and the 
fields that ran red with human blood in April were green with 
the harvest in June; women reared in luxury cut up their 
dresses and made breeches for their husbands, and, with a 
patience and heroism that fit women always as a garment, 
gave their hands to work. There was little bitterness in all 
this. Cheerfulness and frankness prevailed. " Bill Arp " 
struck the keynote, when he said : " Well, I killed as many 
of them as they did of me, and now I am going to work." Or 
the soldier going home after defeat and roasting some corn 
on the roadside, who made the remark to his comrades: 
" You may leave the South, if you want to, but I am going 
to Sandersville, kiss my wife and raise a crop, and if the 
Yankees fool with me any more I will whip 'em again." I 
want to say to General Sherman 7 — who is considered an 
able man in our parts, though some folks think he is kind of 
careless about fire — that from the ashes he left us in 1864 
we have raised a brave and beautiful city; that somehow or 
other we have caught the sunshine in the bricks and mortar 
of our homes, and have builded therein not one ignoble 
prejudice or memory. 

But in all this what have we accomplished? What is the 
sum of our work? We have found out that in the general 



Speeches for Careful Study 307 

summing up the free negro counts for more than he did as a 
slave. We have planted the schoolhouse on the hilltop and 
made it free to white and black. We have sowed towns and 
cities in the place of theories, and put business above politics. 
We have challenged your spinners in Massachusetts and your 
iron-makers in Pennsylvania. We have learned that the 
$400,000,000 annually received from our cotton crop will 
make us rich, when the supplies that make it are home- 
raised. We have reduced the commercial rate of interest 
from twenty-four to four percent, and are floating four 
percent bonds. We have learned that one Northern immi- 
grant is worth fifty foreigners, and have smoothed the path 
to the southward, wiped out the place where Mason and 
Dixon's line used to be, and hung out the latchstring to you 
and yours. 

We have reached the point that marks perfect harmony in 
every household, when the husband confesses that the pies 
that his wife cooks are as good as those his mother used to 
bake; and we admit that the sun shines as brightly and the 
moon as softly as it did "before the war." We have estab- 
lished thrift in the city and country. We have fallen in 
love with work. We have restored comforts to homes from 
which culture and elegance never departed. We have let 
economy take root and spread among us as rank as the crab 
grass which sprung from Sherman's cavalry camps, until 
we are ready to lay odds on the Georgia Yankee, as he 
manufactures relics of the battlefield in a one-story shanty 
and squeezes pure olive oil out of his cotton seed, against any 
down-easter that swapped wooden nutmegs for flannel 
sausages in the valley of Vermont. 

Above all, we know that we have achieved " in these 
piping times of peace," a fuller independence for the South 
than that which our forefathers sought to win in the forum 
by their eloquence, or compel on the field by their swords. 



308 The Making of an Oration 

It is a rare privilege, sir, to have had a part, however 
humble, in this work. Never was nobler duty confided to 
human hands than the uplifting and upbuilding of the pros- 
trate and bleeding South, misguided, perhaps, but beautiful 
in her suffering, and honest, brave, and generous always. In 
the record of her social, industrial, and political restoration 
we await with confidence the verdict of the world. 

But what of the negro? Have we solved the problem he 
presents, or progressed in honor and equity toward the .solu- 
tion? Let the record speak to the point. No section shows 
a more prosperous laboring population than the negroes of 
the South; none in fuller sympathy with the employing and 
land-owning class. He shares our school fund, has the full- 
est protection of our laws, and the friendship of our people. 
Self-interest, as well as honor, demands that they should have 
this. Our future, our very existence, depends upon our 
working out this problem in full and exact justice. We 
understand that when Lincoln signed the Emancipation 
Proclamation, your victory was assured; for he then com- 
mitted you to the cause of human liberty, against which the 
laws of man cannot prevail; while those of our statesmen 
who trusted to make slavery the cornerstone of the Confed- 
eracy doomed us to defeat as far as they could, committing 
us to a cause that reason could not defend or the sword 
maintain in the sight of advancing civilization. 

Had Mr. Toombs said, which he did not say, that he would 
call the roll of his slaves at the foot of Bunker Hill, he would 
have been foolish, for he might have known that whenever 
slavery became entangled in war it must perish, and that the 
chattel in human flesh ended forever in New England when 
your fathers — not to be blamed for parting with what did 
not pay — sold their slaves to our fathers, not to be praised 
for knowing a paying thing when they saw it. 

The relations of the Southern people with the negro are 



Speeches for Careful Study 309 

close and cordial. We remember with what fidelity for four 
years he guarded our defenseless women and children, whose 
husbands and fathers were fighting against his freedom. To 
his credit be it said that whenever he struck a blow for his 
own liberty, he fought in open battle, and when at last he 
raised his black and humble hands that the shackles might 
be struck off, those hands were innocent of wrong against his 
helpless charges, and worthy to be taken in loving grasp by 
every man who honors loyalty and devotion. 

Ruffians have maltreated him, rascals have misled him, 
philanthropists established a bank for him, but the South 
with the North protest against injustice to this simple and 
sincere people. To liberty and enfranchisement is as far as 
the law can carry the negro. The rest must be left to con- 
science and common sense. It should be left to those among 
whom his lot is cast, with whom he is indissolubly connected, 
and whose prosperity depends upon their possessing his in- 
telligent sympathy and confidence. Faith has been kept with 
him in spite of calumnious assertions to the contrary by 
those who assume to speak for us, or by frank opponents. 
Faith will be kept with him in the future, if the South holds 
her reason and integrity. 

But have we kept faith with you? In the fullest sense, 
yes. When Lee surrendered — I do n't say when Johnston 
surrendered, because I understand he still alludes to the time 
when he met General Sherman last as the time when he 
" determined to abandon any further prosecution of the 
struggle " — when Lee surrendered, I say, and Johnston 
quit, the South became, and has been loyal to the Union. We 
fought hard enough to know that we were whipped, and in 
perfect frankness accepted as final the arbitrament of the 
sword to which we had appealed. The South found her jewel 
in the toad's head of defeat. The shackles 8 that had held 



310 The Making of an Oration 

her in narrow limitations fell forever when the shackles of 
the negro slave were broken. 

Under the old regime the negroes were slaves to the South, 
the South was a slave to the system. The old plantation, with 
its simple police regulations and its feudal habit, was the only- 
type possible under slavery. Thus was gathered in the hands 
of a splendid and chivalric oligarchy the substance that should 
have been diffused among the people, as the rich blood, under 
certain artificial conditions, is gathered at the heart, filling 
that with affluent rapture, but leaving the body chill and 
colorless. 

The old South rested everything on slavery and agricul- 
ture, unconscious that these could neither give nor maintain 
healthy growth. The new South presents a perfect Democ- 
racy, the oligarchs leading in the popular movement — a 
social system compact and closely knitted, less splendid on 
the surface but stronger at the core; a hundred farms for 
every plantation, fifty homes for every palace, and a diversi- 
fied industry that meets the complex needs of this complex 
age. 

The 9 New South is enamored of her new work. Her soul 
is stirred with the breath of a new life. The light of a 
grander day is falling fair on her face. She is thrilling with 
the consciousness of a growing power and prosperity. As she 
stands upright, full statured and equal among the people of 
the earth, breathing the keen air and looking out upon the 
expanding horizon, she understands that her emancipation 
came because in the inscrutible wisdom of God her honest 
purpose was crossed and her brave armies were beaten. 

This is said in no spirit of time-serving or apology. The 
South has nothing for which to apologize. She believes that 
the late struggle between the States was war and not rebel- 
lion, revolution and not conspiracy, and that her convictions 
were as honest as yours. I should be unjust to the dauntless 



Speeches for Careful Study 311 

spirit of the South and to my own convictions if I did not 
make this plain in this presence. The South has nothing to 
take back. In my native town of Athens is a monument 
that crowns its central hills — a plain white shaft. Deep cut 
into its shining side is a name dear to me above the names of 
men, that of a brave and simple man who died in a brave and 
simple faith. Not for all the glories of New England — 
from Plymouth Rock all the way — would I exchange the 
heritage he left me in his soldier's death. To the feet of 
that shaft I shall send my children's children to reverence 
him who ennobled their name with his heroic blood. But, sir, 
speaking from the shadow of that memory, which I honor as 
I do nothing else on earth, I say that the cause in which he 
suffered and for which he gave his life was adjudged by 
higher and fuller wisdom than his or mine, and I am glad 
that the omniscient God held the balance of battle in His 
Almighty Hand, and that human slavery was swept forever 
from American soil — the American Union saved from the 
wreck of war. 

This message, Mr. President, comes to you from conse- 
crated ground, every foot of soil about the city in which I 
live is sacred as a battleground of the republic. Every hill 
that invests it is hallowed to you by the blood of your brothers 
who died for your victory, and doubly hallowed to us by the 
blood of those who died hopeless, but undaunted, in defeat — 
sacred soil to all of us, rich with memories that make us purer 
and stronger and better, silent but staunch witnesses in its 
red desolation of the matchless vafor of American hearts and 
the deathless glory of American arms — speaking an elo- 
quent witness, in its white peace and prosperity, to the indis- 
soluble union of American states and the imperishable 
brotherhood of the American people. 

Now what answer has New England to this message? 
Will she permit the prejudice of war to remain in the heart 



312 The Making of an Oration 

of the conquerors, when it has died in the hearts of the con- 
quered? Will she transmit this prejudice to the next genera- 
tion, that in their hearts, which never felt the generous 
ardor of conflict, it may perpetuate itself? Will she with- 
hold, save in strained courtesy, the hand which, straight from 
his soldier's heart, Grant offered to Lee at Appomattox? 
Will she make the vision of a restored and happy people, 
which gathered above the couch of your dying captain, filling 
his heart with grace, touching his lips with praise and glori- 
fying his path to the grave; will she make this vision, on 
which his expiring soul breathed a benediction, a cheat and 
a delusion? If she does, the South, never abject in asking for 
comradeship, must accept with dignity its refusal ; but if she 
does not — if she accepts with frankness and sincerity this 
message of goodwill and friendship, then will the prophecy 
of Webster, delivered in this very Society forty years ago, 
amid tremendous applause, be verified in its fullest and final 
sense, when he said: "Standing hand to hand and clasping 
hands, we should remain united as we have for sixty years, 
citizens of the same country, members of the same govern- 
ment, united all, united now, and united forever. There have 
been difficulties, contentions, and controversies, but I tell you 
that in my judgment 

Those 10 opposed eyes, 
Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven, 
All of one nature, of one substance bred, 
Did lately meet in th' intestine shock, 
Shall now, in mutual, well-beseeming ranks 

March all one way. 



Speeches for Careful Study 313 



NOTES ON THE SPEECH OF HENRY W. GRADY 

Make a full plan with all details introduced to show the prog- 
ress of the speaker's thought and his easy transitions. Note, 
also, the manly courage and grace of the whole speech. 

i. Text, — observe the appropriateness in place and form of 
the quotation. 

2. Cavalier and Puritan. The South, especially Virginia, was 
settled largely by members of the Cavalier party and New 
England by Puritan immigrants, when these two parties were 
struggling for the ascendancy in England. 

3. What, if any, ground was there for ascribing such laws to 
the Puritans? Was the charge serious or playful? How did it 
serve to put the speaker on good terms with his audience? 

4. An eloquent preacher who had spoken. 

5. How does this characterization of Lincoln harmonize w'th 
that of James Russell Lowell in the Commemoration Ode and in 
Lowell's essay on the same theme? Observe how this allusion to 
Lincoln exemplifies the theme as stated in what the speaker calls 
his "text." 

6. Observe how the speaker uses interrogation to add to both 
the force and the pathos of his description. Also note the effect- 
iveness of antithesis, here and elsewhere in the speech. 

7. General Sherman was present at the banquet. 

8. Note how the vividness and picturesqueness of the language 
appeal to the imagination. 

9. What is the effect of the personification in this paragraph? 

10. See Shakespeare's " King Henry the Fourth," Part I, Act I, 
Scene I. 



THE " CROSS OF GOLD " 

BY 

William J. Bryan 

(Concluding the debate on the Chicago platform of the Demo- 
cratic party, adopted at the Convention of 1896. Used by special 
permission of Mr. Bryan.) 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention x : — I 
would be presumptuous, indeed, to present myself against the 
distinguished gentlemen to whom you have listened if this 
were a mere measuring of abilities ; but this is not a contest 
between persons. The humblest citizen in all the land, when 
clad in the armor of a righteous cause, is stronger than all 
the hosts of error. I come to speak to you in defense of a 
cause as holy as the cause of liberty — the cause of humanity. 

When this debate is concluded, a motion will be made to 
lay upon the table the resolution offered in commendation of 
the administration, and also the resolution offered in con- 
demnation of the administration. We object to bringing this 
question down to the level of persons. The individual is but 
an atom; he is born, he acts, he dies; but principles are 
eternal; and this has been a contest over a principle. 

Never before in the history of this country has there been 
witnessed such a contest as that through which we have just 
passed. Never before in the history of American politics has 
a great issue been fought out, as this issue has been, by the 
voters of a great party. On the fourth of March, 1895, a few 
Democrats, most of them members of Congress, issued an 
address to the Democrats of the nation, asserting that the 

314 



Speeches for Careful Study 315 

money question was the paramount issue of the hour ; declar- 
ing that a majority of the Democratic party had a right to 
control the party on this paramount issue; and concluding 
with the request that the believers in the free coinage of 
silver in the Democratic party should organize, take charge 
of, and control the policy of the Democratic party. Three 
months later, at Memphis, an organization was perfected, 
and the silver Democrats went forth openly and courageously 
proclaiming their belief, and declaring that, if successful, 
they would crystallize into a platform the declaration which 
they had made. Then began the conflict. With a zeal ap- 
proaching the zeal which inspired the crusaders who followed 
Peter the Hermit, our silver Democrats went forth from vic- 
tory unto victory until they are now assembled, not to discuss, 
not to debate, but to enter up the judgment already rendered 
by the plain people of this country. In this contest brother 
has been arrayed against brother, father against son. The 
warmest ties of love, acquaintance, and association have been 
disregarded ; old leaders have been cast aside when they have 
refused to give expression to the sentiments of those whom 
they would lead, and new leaders have sprung up to give 
direction to this cause of truth. Thus has the contest been 
waged, and we have assembled here under as binding and 
solemn instructions as were ever imposed upon representa- 
tives of the people. 

We do not come as individuals. As individuals we might 
have been glad to compliment the gentleman from New York 
[Senator Hill], but we know that the people for whom we 
speak would never be willing to put him in a position where 
he could thwart the will of the Democratic party. I say it 
was not a question of persons ; it was a question of principle, 
and it is not with gladness, my friends, that we find ourselves 
brought into conflict with those now arrayed on the other 
side. 



316 The Making of an Oration 

The gentleman who preceded me [ex-Governor Russell] 
spoke of the State of Massachusetts; let me assure him that 
not one present in all this convention entertains the least 
hostility to the people of the State of Massachusetts, but we 
stand here representing people who are the equals, before the 
law, of the greatest citizens in the State of Massachusetts. 
When you [turning to the gold delegates] come before us 
and tell us that we are about to disturb your business inter- 
ests, we reply that you have disturbed our business interests 
by your course. 

We say to you that you have made the definition of a busi- 
ness man 2 too limited in its application. The man who is 
employed for wages is as much a business man as his em- 
ployer ; the attorney in a country town is as much a business 
man as the corporation counsel in a great metropolis; the 
merchant at the cross-roads store is as much a business man 
as the merchant of New York; the farmer who goes forth 
in the morning and toils all day, who begins in spring and toils 
all summer, and who, by the application of brains and muscle 
to the natural resources of the country creates wealth, is as 
much a business man as the man who goes upon the board 
of trade and bets upon the price of grain ; the miners who go 
down a thousand feet into the earth or climb two thousand 
feet upon the cliffs, and bring forth from their hiding places 
the precious metals to be poured into the channels of trade are 
as much business men as the few financial magnates who, in 
a back room, corner the money of the world. We come to 
speak of this broader class of business men. 

Ah, my friends, we say not one word against those who 
live upon the Atlantic coast, but the hardy pioneers who have 
braved all the dangers of the wilderness, who have made the 
desert 3 to blossom as the rose, — the pioneers away out there 
[pointing to the west], who rear their children near to 
Nature's heart, where they can mingle their voices with the 



Speeches for Careful Study 317 

voices of the birds, — out there where they have erected 
schoolhouses for the education of their young, churches where 
they praise their Creator, and cemeteries where rest the ashes 
of their dead — these people, we say, are as deserving of the 
consideration of our party as any people in this country. It is 
for these that we speak. We do not come as aggressors. 
Our war is not a war of conquest; we are fighting in defense 
of our homes, our families, and posterity. We have peti- 
tioned, 4 and our petitions have been scorned; we have en- 
treated, and our entreaties have been disregarded; we have 
begged, and they have mocked when our calamity came. 3 We 
beg no longer; we entreat no more; we petition no more. 
We defy them ! 

The gentleman from Wisconsin has said that he fears a 
Robespierre. My friends, in this land of the free you need 
not fear that a tyrant will spring up from among the people. 
What we need is an Andrew Jackson to stand, as Jackson 
stood, against the encroachments of organized wealth. 

They tell us that this platform was made to catch votes. 
We tell them that changing conditions make new issues ; that 
the principles upon which Democracy rests are as everlasting 
as the hills, but that they must be applied to new conditions as 
they rise. Conditions have arisen, and we are here to meet 
those conditions. They tell us that the income tax ought not 
to be brought in here; that it is a new idea. They criticize 
us for our criticism of the Supreme Court of the United 
States. My friends, we have not criticized; we have simply 
called attention to what you already know. If you want 
criticisms, read the dissenting opinions of the court. There 
you will find criticisms. They say that we passed an uncon- 
stitutional law; we deny it. The income tax was not un- 
constitutional when it was passed ; it was not unconstitutional 
when it went before the Supreme Court for the first time ; it 
did not become unconstitutional until one of the judges 



318 The Making of an Oration 

changed his mind, and we cannot be expected to know when 
a judge will change his mind. The income tax is just. It 
simply intends to put the burdens of government justly upon 
the backs of the people. I am in favor of an income tax. 
When I find a man who is not willing to bear his share of the 
burdens of the government which protects him, I find a man 
who is unworthy to enjoy the blessings of a government like 
ours. 

They say that we are opposing national bank currency; 
it is true. If you will read what Thomas Benton said, you 
will find he said that, in searching history, he could find but 
one parallel to Andrew Jackson; that was Cicero, who 
destroyed the conspiracy of Cataline and saved Rome. 
Benton said that Cicero only did for Rome what Jackson did 
for us when he destroyed the bank conspiracy and saved 
America. We say in our platform that we believe that the 
right to coin and issue money is a function of government. 
We believe it. We believe that it is a part of sovereignty, 
and can no more with safety be delegated to private individ- 
uals than we could afford to delegate to private individuals 
to make penal statutes or levy taxes. Mr. Jefferson, who 
was once regarded as good Democratic authority, seems to 
have differed in opinion from the gentleman who has ad- 
dressed us on the part of the minority. Those who are 
opposed to this proposition tell us that the issue of paper 
money is a function of the bank, and that the government 
ought to go out of the banking business. I stand with Jeffer- 
son rather than with them, and tell them, as he did, that the 
issue of money is a function of government, and that the 
banks ought to go out of the governing business. 

They complain about the plank which declares against life 
tenure in office. They have tried to strain it to mean that 
which it does not mean. What we oppose by that plank is the 
life tenure which is built up in Washington, and which 



Speeches for Careful Study 319 

excludes from participation in official benefits the humbler 
members of society. Let me call your attention to two 
or three important things. The gentleman from New York 
says that he will propose an amendment to the platform pro- 
viding that the proposed change in our monetary system 
shall not affect contracts already made. Let me remind you 
that there is no intention of affecting those contracts which, 
according to present laws, are made payable in gold; but if 
he means to say that we cannot change our monetary system 
without protecting those who have loaned money before the 
change was made, I desire to ask him where, in law or in 
morals, he can find justification for not protecting the debtors 
when the act of 1873 was passed, if he now insists that we 
must protect the creditors. 

He says he will also propose an amendment which will 
provide for the suspension of free coinage if we fail to main- 
tain the parity within a year. We reply that when we 
advocate a policy which we believe will be successful, we are 
not compelled to raise a doubt as to our own sincerity by 
suggesting what we shall do if we fail. I ask him, if he 
would apply his logic to us, why he does not apply it to him- 
self. He says he wants this country to try to secure an interna- 
tional agreement. Why does he not tell us what he is going to 
do, if he fails to secure an international agreement? There is 
more reason for him to do that than there is for us to provide 
against the failure to maintain the parity. Our opponents 5 
have tried for twenty years to secure an international agree- 
ment, and those are waiting for it most patiently who do not 
want it at all. 

And now, my friends, let me come to the paramount issue. 
If they ask us why it is that we say more on the money ques- 
tion than we say upon the tariff question, I reply that, if 
protection 3 has slain its thousands, the gold standard has 
slain its tens of thousands. If they ask us why we do not 



320 The Making of an Oration 

embody in our platform all the things that we believe in, I 
reply that when we have restored the money of the constitu- 
tion all other necessary reforms will be possible ; but that until 
this is done there is no other reform that can be accomplished. 

Why is it that within three months such a change has come 
over the country? Three months ago when it was confidently 
asserted that those who believe in the gold standard would 
frame our platform and nominate our candidates, even the 
advocates of the gold standard did not think that we could 
elect a President. And they had good reason for their doubt, 
because there is scarcely a state here today asking for the 
gold standard which is not in the absolute control of the 
Republican party. But note the change. Mr. McKinley 
was nominated at St. Louis upon a platform which declared 
for the maintenance of the gold standard until it can be 
changed into bimetalism by international agreement. Mt. 
McKinley was the most popular man among the Republicans, 
and three months ago everybody in the Republican party 
prophesied his election. How is it today? Why, the man 
who was once pleased to think that he looked like Napoleon 6 
— that man shudders today when he remembers that he was 
nominated on the anniversary of the battle of Waterloo. Not 
only that, but as he listens he can hear with ever-increasing 
distinctness the sound of the waves as they beat upon the 
lonely shores of St. Helena. 

Why this change? Ah, my friends, is not the reason for 
the change evident to any one who will look at the matter? 
No private character, however pure, no personal popularity, 
however great, can protect from the avenging wrath of an 
indignant people a man who will declare that he is in favor 
of fastening the gold standard upon this country, or who is 
willing to surrender the right of self-government and place 
the legislative control of our affairs in the hands of foreign 
potentates and powers. 



Speeches for Careful Study 321 

We go forth confident that we shall win. Why? Because 
upon the paramount issue of this campaign there is not a spot 
of ground upon which the enemy will dare to challenge 
battle. If they tell us that the gold standard is a good thing, 
we shall point to their platform and tell them that their plat- 
form pledges the party to get rid of the gold standard and 
substitute bimetallism. If the gold standard is a good thing, 
why try to get rid of it? I call your attention to the fact that 
some of the very people who are in this convention today and 
who tell us that we ought to declare in favor of international 
bimetallism, — thereby declaring that the gold standard is 
wrong and that the principle of bimetallism is better, — these 
very people four months ago were open and avowed advocates 
of the gold standard, and were then telling us that we could 
not legislate two metals together, even with the aid of all the 
world. If the gold standard is a good thing, we ought to 
declare in favor of its retention and not in favor of aban- 
doning it; and if the gold standard is a bad thing, why should 
we wait until other nations are willing to help us to let go? 
Here is the line of battle, and we care not upon which issue 
they force the fight; we are prepared to meet them upon 
either issue or on both. If they tell us that the gold standard 
is the standard of civilization, we reply to them that this, the 
most enlightened of all nations of the earth, has never de- 
clared for a gold standard and that both the great parties this 
year are declaring against it. If the gold standard is the 
standard of civilization, why, my friends, should we not have 
it? If they come to meet us on that issue we can present the 
history of our nation. More than that; we can tell them 
that they can search the pages of history in vain to find 
a single instance where the common people of any land 
have ever declared themselves in favor of the gold standard. 
They can find where the holders of fixed investments have 
declared for a gold standard, but not where the masses have. 



322 The Making of an Oration 

Mr. Carlisle said in 1878 that this was a struggle between 
" the idle holders of idle capital " and " the struggling masses, 
who produce the wealth and pay the taxes of the country " ; 
and, my friends, the question we are to decide is: Upon 
which side will the Democratic party fight; upon the side 
of the " idle holders of idle capital " or upon the side of 
" the struggling masses " ? That is the question which the 
party must answer first, and then it must be answered by 
each individual hereafter. The sympathies of the Demo- 
cratic party, as shown by the platform, are on the side of 
the struggling masses who have ever been the foundation of 
the Democratic party. There are two ideas of government. 
There are those who believe that, if you will only legislate 
to make the well-to-do prosperous, their prosperity will leak 
through on those below. The Democratic idea, however, 
is that if you legislate to make the masses prosperous, their 
prosperity will find its way up through every class which 
rests upon them. 

You come to us and tell us that the great cities are in favor 
of the gold standard ; we reply that the great cities rest upon 
our broad and fertile prairies. Burn down your cities and 
leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if 
by magic; but destroy our farms and the grass will grow in 
every city in the country. 

My friends, we declare that this nation is able to legislate 
for its own people on every question, without waiting for 
the aid or consent of any other nation on earth; and upon 
that issue we expect to carry every state in the Union. I 
shall not slander the inhabitants of the fair State of Massa- 
chusetts nor the inhabitants of the State of New York by 
saying that, when they are confronted with the proposition, 
this nation is not able to attend to its own business. It is 
the issue of 1776 over again. Our ancestors, when but three 
millions in number, had the courage to declare their political 



Speeches for Careful Study 323 

independence of every other nation ; shall we, their descend- 
ants, when we have grown to seventy millions, declare that 
we are less independent than our forefathers? No, my friends, 
that will never be the verdict of our people. Therefore, we 
care not upon what lines the battle is fought. If they say that 
bimetalism is good, but that we can not have it until other na- 
tions help us, we reply that instead of having a gold standard 
because England has, we will restore bimetalism, and then let 
England have bimetalism because the United States has it. 
If they dare come out in the open field and defend the gold 
standard as a good thing, we will fight them to the uttermost. 
Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and 
the world, supported by the commercial interests, the labor- 
ing interests, and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their 
demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall 
not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, 3 
you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold. 

NOTES ON MR. BRYAN'S " CROSS OF GOLD " SPEECH 

1. It will be well for the student to examine the sentence- 
structure of this famous speech to discover the qualities that 
helped give it its effectiveness. The sentences are usually short; 
they have variety; they go directly to the point. The whole 
speech also conveys the impression that the speaker is in deadly 
earnest. 

2. This definition of a business man caused more discussion, 
perhaps, at the time than any other part of the speech. 

3. Some of the most telling passages in Mr. Bryan's oratory are 
drawn from the Bible. 

4. This passage suggests a passage in Patrick Henry's "Liberty 
or Death " speech — the passage beginning " We have done 
everything that could be done," etc. Compare the two. 

5. Notice the hint, more effective than would be a positive 
assertion, at insincerity on the part of his opponents. 

6. Observe the significance of the allusion to Napoleon, Water- 
loo, and St. Helena, its beauty, its force, its climax. 



AFFAIRS IN CUBA 

BY 

John M. Thurston 

(The following speech was delivered in the United States 
Senate, March 24, 1898. This was soon after the warship, 
Maine, had been destroyed in Havana harbor. The Cuban people 
had long been struggling against the oppression of Spain. This 
fact, with the excitement growing out of the loss of the Maine, 
had stirred the American people to a white heat of indignation. 
Senator Thurston had recently visited Cuba to ascertain the con- 
dition of affairs. During that visit his wife was taken ill and soon 
died, a fact which added pathos and effectiveness to his words.) 

Mr. President, I am here by command of 1 silent lips to 
speak once and for all upon the Cuban situation. I trust that 
no one has expected anything sensational from me. God 
forbid that the bitterness of a personal loss should induce me 
to color in the slightest degree the statement that I feel it 
my duty to make. I shall endeavor to be honest, conserva- 
tive, and just. I have no purpose to stir the public passion 
to any action not necessary and imperative to meet the duties 
and necessities of American responsibility, Christian human- 
ity, and national honor. I would shirk the task if I could, 
but I dare not. I can not satisfy my conscience except by 
speaking and speaking now. 

Some three weeks since, three Senators and two repre- 
sentatives in Congress accepted the invitation of a great 
metropolitan newspaper to make a trip to Cuba and person- 
ally investigate and report upon the situation there. Our 
invitation was from a newspaper whose political teachings 
I have never failed to antagonize and denounce, and whose 

324 



Speeches for Careful Study 325 

journalism I have considered decidedly sensational. But let 
me say, for the credit of the proprietor of the paper in ques- 
tion, that I believe the invitation extended to us was inspired 
by his patriotic desire to have the actual condition of affairs 
in Cuba brought to the attention of the American people in 
such a way that the facts would no longer remain in con- 
troversy or dispute. 

We were not asked to become the representatives of the 
paper; no conditions or restrictions were imposed upon us; 
we were left free to conduct the investigation in our own 
way, make our own plans, pursue our own methods, take our 
own time, and decide for ourselves upon the best manner of 
laying the result of our labors before the American people. 
For myself, I went to Cuba firmly believing that the condi- 
tion of affairs there had been greatly exaggerated by the 
press, and my own efforts were directed in the first instance 
to the attempted exposure of these supposed exaggerations. 

Mr. President, there has undoubtedly been much sensa- 
tionalism in the journalism of the time, but as to the con- 
dition of affairs in Cuba there has been no exaggeration, 
because exaggeration has been impossible. I have read the 
careful statement of the Junior Senator from Vermont, and 
I find that he has anticipated me in almost every detail. From 
my own personal knowledge of the situation, I adopt every 
word of his concise, conservative, specific presentation, as 
my own ; nay, more, I am convinced that he has, in a measure, 
understated the facts. I absolutely agree with him in the fol- 
lowing conclusions: 

After three years of warfare and the use of 225,000 Span- 
ish troops, Spain has lost control of every foot of Cuba not 
surrounded by an actual intrenchment and protected by a 
fortified picket line. 

She holds possession with her armies of the fortified sea- 
board towns, not because the insurgents could not capture 



326 The Making of an Oration 

many of them, but because they are under the virtual pro- 
tection of Spanish war ships, with which the revolutionists 
can not cope. 

The revolutionists are in absolute and almost peaceful 
possession of nearly one-half of the island, including the 
eastern provinces of Santiago de Cuba and Puerto Principe. 
In those provinces they have an established form of govern- 
ment, levy and collect taxes, maintain armies, and generally 
levy a tax or tribute upon the principal plantations in the 
other provinces, and, as is commonly believed, upon the entire 
railway system of the island. 

In the four so-called Spanish provinces there is neither cul- 
tivation nor railway operation except under strong Spanish 
military protection or by consent of the revolutionists in con- 
sideration of tribute paid. Under the inhuman policy of 
Weyler 2 not less than 400,000 self-supporting, peaceable, 
defenseless country people were driven from their homes in 
the agricultural portions of the Spanish provinces to the cities 
and imprisoned upon the barren waste outside the residence 
portions of these cities and within the line of intrenchment 
established a little way beyond. Their humble homes were 
burned, their fields laid waste, their implements of husbandry 
destroyed, their live stock and food supplies for the most part 
confiscated. Most of these people were old men, women, and 
children. They were thus placed in hopeless imprisonment, 
without shelter or food. There was no work for them in the 
cities to which they were driven. They were left there with 
nothing to depend upon except the scanty charity of the 
inhabitants of the cities and with slow starvation their 
inevitable fate. 

It is conceded upon the best ascertainable authority, and 
those who have had access to the public records do not hesi- 
tate to state, that upward of 210,000 of these people have 
already perished, all from starvation or from diseases incident 
to starvation. 



Speeches for Careful Study 327 

The government of Spain has never contributed one dol- 
lar to house, shelter, feed, or provide medical attention for 
these its own citizens. Such a spectacle exceeds the scenes 
of the Inferno as painted by Dante. 

There has been no amelioration of the situation except 
through the charity of the people of the United States. There 
has been no diminution of the death rate among these recon- 
centrados 3 except as the death supply is constantly dimin- 
ished. There can be no relief and no hope except through 
the continued charity of the American people until peace shall 
be fully restored in the island and until a humane govern- 
ment shall return these people to their homes and provide 
for them anew the means with which to begin again the cul- 
tivation of the soil. 

Spain cannot put an end to the existing condition. She 
can not conquer the insurgents. She can not reestablish her 
sovereignty over any considerable portion of the interior of 
the island. The revolutionists, while able to maintain them- 
selves, can not drive the Spanish army from the fortified sea- 
coast towns. 

The situation, then, is not war as we understand it, but 
a chaos of devastation and depopulation of undefined dura- 
tion, whose end no man can see. 

I will cite but a few facts that came under my personal 
observation, all tending fully to substantiate the absolute 
truth of the foregoing propositions. I could detail incidents 
by the hour and by the day, but the Senator from Vermont has 
absolutely covered the case. I have no desire to deal in hor- 
rors. If I had my way, I would shield the American public 
even from the photographic reproductions of the awful scenes 
that I viewed in all their original ghastliness. 

Spain has sent to Cuba more than 225,000 soldiers to sub- 
due the island, whose entire male population capable of 
bearing arms did not exceed at the beginning that number. 
These soldiers were mostly boys, conscripts from the Spanish 



328 The Making of an Oration 

hills. They are well armed, but otherwise seem absolutely- 
unprovided for. They have been without tents and practically 
without any of the necessary supplies and equipment for 
service in the field. They have been put in barracks, in 
warehouses, and old buildings in the cities where all sanitary 
surroundings have been of the worst possible character. They 
have seen but little discipline, and I could not ascertain that 
such a thing as a drill had taken place in the island. 

There are less than 60,000 now available for duty. The 
balance are dead or sick in hospitals, or have been sent back 
to Spain as incapacitated for further service. It is currently 
stated that there are 37,000 sick in hospitals. I do not be- 
lieve that the entire Spanish army in Cuba could stand an 
engagement in the open field against 20,000 well disciplined 
American soldiers. 

As an instance of the discipline among them, I cite the 
fact that I bought the machete of a Spanish soldier on duty 
at the wharf in Matanzas, on his offer, for three dollars in 
Spanish silver. He also seemed desirous of selling me his 
only remaining arm, a revolver. 

The Spanish soldiers have not been paid for some months, 
and in my judgment they, of all the people on earth, will 
most gladly welcome any result which would permit them to 
return to their homes in Spain. 

The pictures in the American newspapers of the starving 
reconcentrados are true. They can all be duplicated by the 
thousands. I never saw, and please God I may never again 
see, So deplorable a sight as the reconcentrados in the suburbs 
of Matanzas. I can never forget to my dying day the hope- 
less anguish in their despairing eyes. Huddled about their 
little bark huts, they raised no voice of appeal to us for alms 
as we went among them. 

There was almost no begging by the reconcentrados them- 
selves. The streets of the cities are full of beggars of all 



Speeches for Careful Study 329 

ages and all conditions, but they are almost wholly of the 
residents of the cities and largely of the professional beggar 
class. The rcconccntrados — men, women, and children — 
stand silent, famishing with hunger. Their only appeal comes 
from their sad eyes, through which one looks as through an 
open window into their agonizing souls. 

The present autonomist governor of Matanzas was inaugu- 
rated in November last. His records disclose that at the city 
of Matanzas there were 1,200 deaths in November, 1,200 in 
December, 700 in January, and 500 in February — 3,600 in 
four months, and those four months under the administration 
of a governor whom I believe to be a truly humane man. He 
stated to me that on the day of his inauguration, which I 
think was the 12th of last November, to his personal knowl- 
edge fifteen persons died in the public square in front of the 
executive mansion. Think of it, oh, my countrymen ! Fif- 
teen human beings dying of starvation in the public square, 
in the shade of the palm trees, and amid the beautiful flowers, 
in sight of the open windows of the executive mansion ! 
*************** 

We asked the governor if he knew any relief for these 
people except through the charity of the United States. He 
did not. We then asked him " Can you see any end to this 
condition of affairs ? " He could not. We asked him, " When 
do you think the time will come that these people can be placed 
in a position of self-support?" He replied to us, with deep 
feeling, " Only the good God or the great government of 
the United States can answer that question." I believe that 
the good God by the great government of the United States 
will answer that question. 

I shall refer to these horrible things no further. They are 
there. God pity me; I have seen them; they will remain in 
my memory forever — and this is almost the twentieth cen- 
tury. Christ died nineteen hundred years ago, and Spain is 



330 The Making of an Oration 

a Christian nation. She has set up more crosses in more 
lands, beneath more skies, and under them has butchered 
more people than all the other nations of the earth combined. 

Europe may tolerate her existence as long as the people of 
the Old World wish. God grant that before another Christ- 
mas morning the last vestige of Spanish tyranny and oppres- 
sion will have vanished from the Western Hemisphere. 

Mr. President, the distinguished Senator from Vermont 
has seen all these things; he knows all these things; he has 
described all these things ; but after describing them he says 
he has nothing to propose, no remedy to suggest. I have. 
I am only an humble unit in the great government of the 
United States, but I should feel myself a traitor did I remain 
silent now. 

I counseled silence and moderation from this floor when 
the passion of the nation seemed at white heat over the 
destruction of the Maine; but it seems to me the time for 
action has now come. Not action in the Maine case. When 
the Maine report is received, if it be found that our ship and 
sailors were blown up by some outside explosive, we will 
have ample reparation without quibble or delay; and if the 
explosion can be traced to Spanish official sources there will 
be such swift and terrible punishment adjudged as will re- 
main a warning to the world forever. 

What shall the United States do, Mr. President? 

I am not here to criticise the present administration. I 
yield to no man living in my respect, my admiration for, and 
my confidence in the judgment, the wisdom, the patriotism, 
the Americanism of William McKinley. When he entered 
upon his administration he faced a difficult situation. It was 
his duty to proceed with care and caution. At the first avail- 
able opportunity he addressed a note to Spain, in which he 
gave that government notice, as set forth in his message to 
the Congress of the United States, that the United States — 



Speeches for Careful Study 331 

" Could be required to wait only a reasonable time for the 
mother country to establish its authority and restore peace 
and order within the borders of the island ; that we could not 
contemplate an indefinite period for the accomplishment of 
this result." 

*************** 

The situation in Cuba has only changed for the worse. 
Sagasta is powerless; Blanco is powerless to put an end to 
the conflict, to rehabilitate the island, or to relieve the suf- 
fering, starvation, and distress. 

The time for action has, then, come. No greater reason 
for it can exist tomorrow than exists today. Every hour's 
delay only adds another chapter to the awful story of misery 
and death. Only one power can intervene — the United 
States of America. Ours is the one great nation of the New 
World, the mother of the American republics. She holds a 
position of trust and responsibility toward the people and 
the affairs of the whole Western Hemisphere. 

It was her glorious example which inspired the patriots 
of Cuba to raise the flag of liberty in her eternal hills. We 
cannot refuse to accept this responsibility which the God of 
the Universe has placed upon us as the one great power in the 
New World. We must act ! What shall our action be ? Some 
say the acknowledgment of the belligerency of the revolu- 
tionists. As I have already shown, the hour and the oppor- 
tunity for that have passed away. 

Others say, Let us by resolution or official proclamation 
recognize the independence of the Cubans. It is too late 
even for such recognition to be of much avail. Others say, 
Annexation to the United States. God forbid ! I would op- 
pose annexation with my latest breath. The people of Cuba 
are not our people ; they can not assimilate with us ; and be- 
yond all that, I am utterly and unalterably opposed to any 
departure from the declared policy of the fathers which would 



332 The Making of an Oration 

start this republic for the first time upon a career of conquest 
and dominion utterly at variance with the avowed purposes 
and the manifest destiny of popular government 

Let the world understand that the United States does not 
propose to annex Cuba, that it is not seeking a foot of Cuban 
soil or a dollar of Spanish treasure. Others say, Let us in- 
tervene for the pacification of the island, giving to its people 
the greatest measure consistent with the continued sovereignty 
of Spain. Such a result is no longer possible. It is enough 
to say that it would be resisted by all classes of the Cuban 
population, and its attempt would simply transfer the putting 
down of the revolution and the subjugation of the Cuban 
patriots to the armies of the United States. 

There is also said to be a syndicate organization in this 
country, representing the holders of Spanish bonds, who are 
urging that the intervention of the United States shall be for 
the purchase of the island or shall be for the guaranteeing of 
the Spanish debt incurred in the attempted subjugation of 
the Cuban revolutionists. Mr. President, it is idle to think 
for a single moment of such a plan. The American people 
will never consent to the payment of a single dollar, to the 
guaranteeing of one bond, as the price paid to Spain in re- 
sistance of the liberty and the independence of the Cuban 
people. 

Mr. President, there is only one action possible, if any is 
taken ; that is, intervention for the independence of the island ; 
intervention that means the landing of an American army on 
Cuban soil, the deploying of an American fleet off Havana; 
intervention which says to Spain, Leave the island, with- 
draw your soldiers, leave the Cubans, these brothers of ours 
in the New World, to form and carry on government for 
themselves. Such intervention on our part wouid not in 
itself be war. It would undoubtedly lead to war. But if war 



Speeches for Careful Study 333 

came it would come by act of Spain in resistance of the liberty 
and the independence of the Cuban people. 

Some say these Cubans are incapable of self-government; 
that they can not be trusted to set up a republic. Will they 
ever become better qualified under Spanish rule than they 
are today? Sometime or other the dominion of kings must 
cease on the Western Continent. 

The Senator of Vermont has done full justice to the native 
population of Cuba. He has studied them, and he knows that 
of all the people on the island they are the best qualified and 
fitted for government. Certainly any government by the 
Cuban people would be better than the tyranny of Spain. 

Mr. President, there was a time when "jingoism" 4 was 
abroad in the land; when sensationalism prevailed, and when 
there was a distinct effort to inflame the passions and preju- 
dices of the American people and precipitate a war with 
Spain. That time has passed away. " Jingoism " is long since 
dead. The American people have waited and waited and 
waited in patience; yea, in patience and confidence — con- 
fidence in the belief that decisive action would be taken in due 
season and in a proper way. Today all over this land the 
appeal comes up to us; it reaches us from every section and 
from every class. That appeal is now for action. 

In an interview of yesterday, the Senior Senator from 
Maine [Mr. Hale] is reported as saying: "Events have 
crowded on too rapidly, and the President has been carried 
off his feet." 

I know of no warrant for such an assertion, but I do know 
this, that unless Congress acts promptly, meeting this grave 
crisis as it should be met, we will be swept away, and we 
ought to be swept away, by the tidal wave of American 
indignation. 

The President has not been carried off his feet. 

The administration has been doing its whole duty. With 



334 The Making of an Oration 

rare foresight and statesmanship it has hastened to make 
every possible preparation for any emergency. If it be true 
that the report in the Maine case has been delayed, it has 
been delayed in order that we might be prepared at all points 
for defensive and offensive action. There are some who say, 
but they are mostly those who have procrastinated from the 
beginning up to the present time, " Let Congress hold its 
peace, adjourn, go home, and leave the President to act." 

I, for one, believe that the Congress of the United States 
is an equal and coordinate branch of the Federal Government, 
representing the combined judgment and wisdom of the many. 
It can more safely be depended on than the individual judg- 
ment and wisdom of any one man. I am a Senator of the 
United States, and I will never consent to abdicate my right 
to participate in the determination as to what is the solemn 
duty of this great republic in this momentous and fateful 
hour. We are not in session to hamper or cripple the Presi- 
dent; we are here to advise and assist him. Congress can 
alone declare war ; Congress can alone levy taxes, and to this 
Congress the united people of this broad land, from sea to 
sea, from lake to gulf, look to voice their wishes and to exe- 
cute their will. 

Mr. President, against the intervention of the United States 
in this holy cause there is but one voice of dissent ; that voice 
is the voice of the money changers. They fear war ! Not 
because of any Christian or ennobling sentiment against war 
and in favor of peace, but because they fear that a declara- 
tion of war, or the intervention which might result in war, 
would have a depressing effect upon the stock market. 

Mr. President, I do not read my duty from the ticker; I 
do not accept my lessons in patriotism from Wall Street. I 
deprecate war. I hope and pray for the speedy coming of the 
time when the sword of the soldier will no longer leap from its 
scabbard to settle disputes between civilized nations. But, it 



Speeches for Careful Study 335 

is evident, looking at the cold facts, that a war with Spain 
would not permanently depreciate the value of a single Ameri- 
can stock or bond. 

War with Spain would increase the business and the earn- 
ings of every American railroad, it would increase the output 
of every American factory, it would stimulate every branch 
of industry and domestic commerce, it would greatly increase 
the demand for American labor, and, in the end, every certifi- 
cate that represented a share in an American business enter- 
prise would be worth more money than it is today. But in 
the meantime the spectre of war would stride through the stock 
exchanges, and many of the gamblers around the board would 
find their ill-gotten gains passing to the other side of the 
table. 

Let them go; what one man loses at the gambling table his 
fellow-gambler wins. It is no concern of yours, it is no con- 
cern of mine, whether the " bulls " or the " bears " have the 
best of these stock deals. They do not represent American 
sentiment; they do not represent American patriotism. Let 
them take their chances as they can. Their weal or woe is 
of but little importance to the liberty-loving people of the 
United States. They will not do the fighting ; their blood will 
not flow; they will keep on dealing in options in human life. 
Let the men whose loyalty is to the dollar stand aside while 
the men whose loyalty is to the flag come to the front. 

There are some who lift their voices in the land and in 
the open light of day insist that the Republican party will not 
act, for they say it sold out to the capitalists and the money 
changers at the last national election. It is not so. God for- 
bid! The seven million freemen who voted for the Repub- 
lican party and for William McKinley did not mortgage the 
honor of this nation for a campaign fund, and if the time 
ever comes when the Republican party hesitates in its course 
of duty because of any undue anxiety for the welfare of the 
accumulated wealth of the nation, then let the Republican 



336 The Making of an Oration 

party be swept from the face of the earth and be succeeded 
by some other party, by whatever name it may be called, 
which will represent the partiotism, the honesty, the loyalty, 
and the devotion that the Republican party exhibited under 
Abraham Lincoln in 1861. 

Mr. President, there are those who say that the affairs of 
Cuba are not the affairs of the United States, who insist that 
we can stand idly by and see that island devastated and de- 
populated, its business interests destroyed, its commercial in- 
tercourse with us cut off, its people starved, degraded, and 
enslaved. It may be the naked, legal right of the United 
States to stand thus idly by. 

I have the legal right to pass along the street and see a 
helpless dog stamped into the earth under the heels of a 
ruffian. I can pass by and say that is not my dog. I can sit 
in my comfortable parlor with my loved ones gathered about 
me, and through my plate glass window see a fiend outraging 
a helpless woman near by, and I can legally say this is no 
affair of mine — it is not happening on my premises ; and I can 
turn away and take my little ones in my arms, and, with the 
memory of their sainted mother in my heart, look up to the 
motto on the wall and read, " God bless our home." 

But, if I do, I am a coward, and a cur unfit to live, and 
God knows, unfit to die. And yet I can not protect the dog 
nor save the woman without the exercise of force. 

We can not intervene and save Cuba without the exercise 
of force, and force means war ; war means blood. The lowly 
Nazarene on the shores of Galilee preached the divine doc- 
trine of love, " Peace on earth, good will toward men." Not 
peace on earth at the expense of liberty and humanity. Not 
good will toward men who despoil, degrade, and starve to 
death their fellowmen. I believe in the doctrine of Christ. 
I believe in the doctrine of peace ; but, Mr. President, men 
must have liberty before there can come abiding peace. 



Speeches for Careful Study 337 

Intervention means force. Force means war. War means 
blood. But it will be God's force. When has a battle for 
humanity and liberty ever been won except by force? What 
barricade of wrong, injustice, and oppression has ever been 
carried except by force? 

Force 5 compelled the signature of unwilling royalty to the 
great Magna Charta; force put life into the Declaration of 
Independence and made effective the Emancipation Proclama- 
tion; force beat with naked hands upon the iron gateway of 
the Bastille and made reprisal in one awful hour for centuries 
of kingly crime; force waved the flag of revolution over 
Bunker Hill and marked the snows of Valley Forge with 
blood-stained feet; force held the broken line at Shiloh, 
climbed the flame-swept hill at Chattanooga, and stormed the 
clouds on Lookout Heights ; force marched with Sherman to 
the sea, rode with Sheridan in the valley of the Shenandoah, 
and gave Grant victory at Appomattox ; force saved the Union, 
kept the stars in the flag, made " niggers " men. The time 
for God's force has come again. Let the impassioned lips 
of American patriots once more take up the song: 

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, 
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me; 
As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, 
For God is marching on. 

Others may hesitate, others may procrastinate, others may 
plead for further diplomatic negotiation, which means delay, 
but for me, I am ready to act now, and for my action I am 
ready to answer to my conscience, my country, and my God. 

Mr. President, in the cable 6 that moored me to life and hope 
the strongest strands are broken. I have but little left to 
offer at the altar of freedom's sacrifice, but all I have I am 
glad to give. I am ready to serve my country as best I can 
in the Senate or in the field. My dearest wish, my most earnest 



338 The Making of an Oration 

prayer to God is this, that when death comes to end all, I 
may meet it calmly and fearlessly, as did my beloved, in the 
cause of humanity, under the American flag. 
[From Vol. 31, Congressional Record, pp. 3162-3165, Part 4] 

NOTES ON JOHN M. THURSTON'S SPEECH 

1. See introductory note. 

2. Weyler, the general in command at that time of the Spanish 
forces in Cuba. He was supposed to exercise extreme cruelty in 
his treatment of the insurgent Cubans. 

3. Reconcentrados, the name given to the Cuban people who 
had been placed under military restrictions; the rural non- 
combatants, who were usually taken from their homes and held 
in suburban districts for convenience of government. 

4. " Jingoism." This term originated in England as a result 
of the action of Lord Beaconsfield's (the prime minister) action 
in 1878 in sending a fleet to Turkish waters to oppose the aggres- 
sions of Russia. A popular song of the time gave the word 
currency in this sense : 

"We do n't want to fight, but by jingo if we do, 
We 've got the ships, we 've got the men, we 've got the money 
too." 

5. Note the cumulative effect of this paragraph. Note also 
how the thought is kept perfectly clear through the somewhat 
long sentence, by the repetition of the subject. 

6. A reference to the recent death of his wife. 
Make a careful plan of the oration. 



ON THE PHILIPPINE QUESTION 

BY 

George F. Hoar 

(The following speech was delivered in the United States 
Senate April 17, 1900. The question at issue was on the adoption 
of a resolution declaring " That the Philippine Islands are terri- 
tory belonging to the United States; that it is the intention of 
the United States to retain them as such and to establish and 
maintain such governmental control throughout the archipelago 
as the situation may demand." Senator Hoar's speech was pre- 
ceded by an address on the other side of the question by Senator 
Beveridge of Indiana. Although the following speech is argu- 
mentative in method, its end is plainly persuasion and it belongs 
to oratory.) 

Mr. President, I have listened, delighted, as have, I sup- 
pose, all the members of the Senate, to the eloquence of my 
honorable friend from Indiana. I am glad to welcome to the 
public service his enthusiasm, his patriotism, his silver speech, 
and the earnestness and the courage, with which he has de- 
voted himself to a discharge of his duty to the Republic as he 
conceives it. Yet, Mr. President, as I heard his eloquent 
description of wealth and glory and commerce and trade, I 
listened in vain for those words which the American people 
have been wont to take upon their lips in every solemn crisis 
of their history. I heard much calculated to excite the imag- 
ination of the youth seeking wealth, or the youth charmed by 
the dreams of empire. But the words, Right, Justice, Duty, 
Freedom, were absent, my friend must permit me to say, from 
the eloquent speech. I could think, as this brave young 
Republic of ours listened to what he had to say, of but one 
occurrence : 

339 



340 The Making of an Oration 

" Then the Devil x taketh Him up into an exceeding high moun- 
tain and showeth Him all the kingdoms of the world and the 
glory of them. 

" And saith unto Him, ' All these things will I give Thee if 
Thou wilt fall down and worship me.' 

" Then saith Jesus unto him, ' Get thee hence, Satan.' " 

Mr. President, when on the 8th of July, 1898, less than two 
years ago, the lamented Vice-President declared the session 
of the Senate at an end, the people of the United States were 
at the high-water mark of prosperity and glory. No other 
country on earth, in all history, ever saw the like. It was an 
American prosperity and an American glory. 

We were approaching the end of a great century. From 
thirteen states we had become forty-five states. From three 
million people we had become nearly eighty million. An 
enormous foreign commerce, promising to grow to still vaster 
proportions in the near future, was thrown into insignificance 
by an internal commerce almost passing the capacity of num- 
bers to calculate. Our manufactures, making their way past 
hostile tariffs and fiscal regulations, were displacing the prod- 
ucts of the greatest manufacturing nations in their own 
markets. South of us, from the Rio Grande to Cape Horn, 
our Monroe Doctrine had banished from the American con- 
tinent the powers of Europe ; Spain and France had retired ; 
monarchy had taken its leave ; and the whole territory was 
occupied by republics owing their freedom to us, forming 
their institutions on our example. Our flag, known and hon- 
ored throughout the earth, was welcomed everywhere in 
friendly ports, and floated everywhere on friendly seas. We 
were the freest, richest, strongest nation on the face of the 
earth — strong in the elements of material strength, stronger 
still in the justice and liberty on which the foundations of our 
empire were laid. We had abolished slavery within our own 
borders by our constitutional mandate, and had abolished 
slavery throughout the world by the influence of our example. 



Speeches for Careful Study 341 

Our national debt has been reduced with unexampled rapid- 
ity. We had increased it somewhat for the necessary expenses 
of the war. But if it had all been due, we could have paid it 
all in a single year by a tax solely upon the luxuries of the 
rich, which the rich would scarcely have felt, and which would 
have vexed no manufacturer and no branch of commerce. 
Rich in all material wealth, we were richer still in a noble 
history and in those priceless ideals by which a republic must 
live or bear no life. 

We had won the glory of a great liberator in both hemi- 
spheres. The flag of Spain — emblem of tyranny and cruelty 
— had been driven from the Western Hemisphere, and was 
soon to go down from her eastern possessions. The war had 
been conducted without the loss of a gun or the capture of 
an American soldier in battle. The glory of this great 
achievement was unlike any other which history has re- 
corded. It was not that we had beaten Spain. It was not 
that seventy-five million people had conquered fifteen million. 
Not that the spirit of the nineteenth century had been too 
much for the spirit of the fifteenth century. Not that the 
young athlete had felled to the ground the decrepit old man 
of ninety. It was not that the American mechanic and engi- 
neer in the machine shop could make better ships or better 
guns; or that the American soldier or sailor had displayed 
the same quality in battle that he had shown on every 
field — at Bunker Hill, at Yorktown, at Lundy's Lane, at 
New Orleans, at Buena Vista, at Gettysburg; in every sea 
fight, on Lake Erie or on the Atlantic. Nobody doubted the 
skill of the American general, the gallantry of the American 
admiral, or the courage of the American soldier or sailor. 

The glory of the war and the victory was that it was a war 
and a victory in the interests of liberty. The American flag 
had appeared as a liberator in both hemispheres; when it 
floated over Havana or Santiago or Manila, there were written 



342 The Making of an Oration 

on its folds, where all nations could read it, the pledge of the 
resolution of Congress and the declaration of the President. 

Every true American thanked God that he had lived to be- 
hold that day. The rarest good fortune of all was the good 
fortune of President McKinley. He was, in my judgment, the 
best-loved President who ever sat in the chair of Washington. 
His name is inseparably connected with two periods of unex- 
ampled prosperity, made more impressive by the period of 
calamity which came between them. The people believed that 
to the great measure 2 called by his name was due a time of 
happiness and comfort never equaled in this country, and 
never approached in any other. It was the high-water mark 
on this planet of every thing that could bring happiness to a 
people. But high as the tide reached then, it went still higher 
under the operation of the policies which came in with his 
administration. He had won golden honors by his patriotic 
hesitation in bringing on war, and by his interpretation of the 
purpose with which the people at last entered upon it. 

When I say that President McKinley was the best-loved 
President that ever sat in the chair of Washington, I do not 
mean, of course, to compare the reverence in which any living 
man is held with that which attends the memory of Washing- 
ton or Lincoln. But Washington and Lincoln encountered 
while they were alive a storm of political hostility which 
President McKinley has fortunately been spared. I repeat, 
that it seems to me that President McKinley holds a place in 
the affection of the people at large which no one of his pred- 
ecessors ever attained in his lifetime. 

The promise which the President and the Senate made to 
Cuba we have, so far, done our best to redeem. When the 
Spanish fleet was sunk and the Spanish flag went down from 
over Havana, peace and order and contentment and reviving 
industry and liberty followed the American flag. Some of us 
had hoped for the same thing in the East. We had hoped that 



Speeches for Careful Study 343 

a like policy would have brought like results in the Philip- 
pine Islands. No man contemplated for a moment the return 
of those islands to Spain. One of the apostles would as soon 
have thought of giving back a redeemed soul to the dominion 
of Satan. 

The American people, so far as I know, were all agreed 
that their victory brought with it the responsibility of protect- 
ing the liberated peoples from the cupidity of any other power 
until they could establish their own independence in freedom 
and in honor. 

I stand here today to plead with you not to abandon the 
principles that have brought these things to pass. I implore 
you to keep to the policy that has made the country great, that 
has made the Republican party great, that has made the Presi- 
dent great. I have nothing new to say. But I ask you to 
keep 3 in the old channels, and to keep off the old rocks laid 
down in the old charts, and to follow the old sailing orders that 
all the old captains of other days have obeyed, to take your 
bearings, as of old, from the north star, 

Of whose true fixed and resting quality 
There is no fellow in the firmament, 
and not from this meteoric light of empire. 

I believe that, if not today or tomorrow, yet at an early day, 
better knowledge of the facts, the light of experience, the love 
of liberty and justice which still burns in the hearts of the 
Republican masses in this country, will bring that party back 
to the principles and policy upon which it planted itself in the 
beginning. 

No, Mr. President, if we subjugate the Filipinos we are, 
if you have your way, to govern ten million people in the 
East, and nearly another million in the West Indies without 
any constitutional restraint. There will be under the flag 
twenty million of other races, black men at home and brown 
men abroad, for whom it bears no star of hope. I do not see 



344 The Making of an Oration 

my way clear to hand them over to Mr. Bryan in the Executive 
Chair, and the Senators from Alabama and South Carolina, 
in the Senate, or to the party of which, beyond all question, 
they are to be most powerful and conspicuous leaders. 

I believe, Mr. President, not only that perseverance in this 
policy will be the abandonment of the principles upon which 
our government is founded, that it will change our government 
into an empire, that our methods of legislation, of diplomacy, 
of administration must hereafter be those which belong to 
empires, and not those which belong to republics; but I 
believe persistence in this attempt will result in the defeat 
and overthrow of the Republican party. That defeat may not 
come this year or next year. I pray God it may never come. 
I well remember when the old Whig party, in the flush of 
delirium and anticipated triumph, gave up the great doctrines 
which it had so often avowed, and undertook to abandon the 
great territory between the Mississippi and the Pacific to 
its fate. It held its convention at Philadelphia. It selected 
as its candidate a great military chieftain. Amid the tempest 
and delirium a quiet delegate from my own state arose and 
declared to the convention that the Whig party was dead. It 
seemed that a more audacious, a more foolish, a more as- 
tounding utterance never fell upon human ears. And what 
was the result? The party carried the country and elected 
its President. But within less than four years thereafter 
Daniel Webster, as he lay dying at Marshfield, said, "The 
Whig party as a political organization is gone ; and it is well." 
Let no such fate attend the Republican party. In my judg- 
ment, if not now, it will retrace its steps in time. 

In dealing with this question, Mr. President, I do not mean 
to enter upon any doubtful ground. I shall advance no 
proposition ever seriously disputed in this country until within 
twelve months. I shall cite no authority that is not by the 
common consent of all parties and all men of all shades of 



Speeches for Careful Study 345 

opinion recognized as among the very weightiest in juris- 
prudence and in the conduct of the state. I shall claim nothing 
as fact which is not abundantly proven by the evidence of the 
great commanders who conducted this war ; by evidence com- 
ing from the President and the heads of department, or persons 
for whose absolute trustworthiness these authorities vouch. 

If to think as I do in regard to the interpretation of the 
Constitution ; in regard to the mandates of the moral law or 
the law of nations, to which all men and all nations must 
render obedience, in regard to policies which are wisest for 
the conduct of the other, or to those facts of recent history in 
the light of which we have acted or are to act hereafter, be 
treason, then Washington was a traitor ; then Jefferson was a 
traitor; then Jackson was a traitor; then Franklin was a 
traitor ; then Sumner was a traitor ; then Lincoln was a traitor ; 
then Webster was a traitor; then Clay was a traitor; then 
Corwin was a traitor ; then Kent was a traitor ; then Seward 
was a traitor ; then McKinley, within two years, was a traitor ; 
then the Supreme Court of the United States has been in the 
past a nest and hotbed of treason; then the people of the 
United States, for more than a century, have been traitors to 
their own flag and their own Constitution. 

We are presented with an issue that can be clearly and 
sharply stated as a question of constitutional power, a ques- 
tion of international law, a question of justice and righteous- 
ness, or a question of public expediency. This can be stated 
clearly and sharply in the abstract, and it can be put clearly 
and sharply by an illustration growing out of existing facts. 

The constitutional question is: Has Congress the power, 
under our Constitution, to hold in subjection unwilling vassal 
states ? 

The question of international laws is: Can any nation 
rightfully convey to another sovereignty over an unwilling 
people who have thrown off its dominion, asserted their inde- 



346 The Making of an Oration 

pendence, established a government of their own, over whom 
it has at the time no practical control, from whose territory 
it has been disseized, and which it is beyond its power to 
deliver ? 

The question of justice and righteousness is: Have we 
the right to crush and hold under our feet an unwilling and 
subject people whom we have treated as allies, whose inde- 
pendence we are bound in good faith to respect, who had 
established their own free government, and who had trusted 
us? 

The question of public expediency is : Is it for our advan- 
tage to promote our trade at the cannon's mouth and at the 
point of the bayonet? 

All these questions can be put in a way of practical illus- 
tration by inquiring whether we ought to do what we have 
done, are doing, and mean to do in the case of Cuba; or 
what we have done, are doing, and some of you mean to do 
in the case of the Philippine Islands. 

It does not seem to me to be worth while to state again at 
length the constitutional argument which I have addressed 
to the Senate heretofore. It has been encountered with elo- 
quence, with clearness and beauty of statement, and, I have 
no doubt, with absolute sincerity by Senators who have 
spoken upon the other side. But the issue between them and 
me can be summed up in a sentence or two, and if, so stated, 
it cannot be made clear to any man's apprehension, I despair 
of making it clear by any elaboration or amplification. 

I admit that the United States may hold property, and 
may make rules and regulations for its disposition. 

I admit that, like other property, the United States may 
acquire and hold land. It may acquire it by purchase. It may 
acquire it by treaty. It may acquire it by conquest. And it 
may make rules and regulations for its disposition and 
government, however it be acquired. 

When there are inhabitants on the land so acquired it may 



Speeches for Careful Study 347 

make laws for their government. But the question between 
me and the gentlemen on the other side is this : Is this acqui- 
sition of property, whether gained by purchase, conquest, or 
treaty, the constitutional end or only a means to a constitu- 
tional end? May you acquire, hold, and govern territory or 
other property as an end for which our Constitution was 
framed, or is it only a means toward some other and further 
end? May you acquire, hold, and govern property by con- 
quest, treaty, or purchase for the sole object of so holding 
and governing it, without the consideration of any further 
constitutional purpose? Or must you hold it for a constitu- 
tional purpose only, such as the making of new states, the 
national defense and security, the establishment of a seat of 
government or the construction of forts, harbors, and like 
works, which, of course, are themselves for the national 
defense and security? 

I hold that this acquisition, holding, and governing can 
be only a means for a constitutional end — the creation of 
new states or some other constitutional purposes to which I 
have adverted. And I maintain that you can no more hold 
and govern territory than you can hold and manage cannon 
or fleets for any other than a constitutional end ; and I main- 
tain that the holding in subjection an alien people, governing 
them against their will for any fancied advantage to them, is 
not only not an end provided for by the Constitution, but is 
an end prohibited therein. 

Now, with due respect to the gentlemen who have dis- 
cussed this matter, I do not find that they have answered this 
proposition or undertaken to answer it. I do not find that 
they have understood it. You have, in my judgment, under 
your admitted power to acquire, own, and govern territory, 
which is just like your admitted power to govern, own, and 
control ships or guns, no more right under the Constitution 
to hold that territory for the sake of keeping in subjection an 
alien people than you have the right to acquire, hold, and 



348 The Making of an Oration 

manage cannon or fleets or to raise armies for the sake of 
keeping in subjection and under your control an alien people. 
All these things are means, and means to constitutional and 
not to unconstitutional ends. 

The Constitution of the United States sets forth certain 
specific objects and confers certain specific powers upon the 
government it creates. All powers necessary or reasonably 
convenient for accomplishing these specific objects and exer- 
cising these specific powers are granted by implication. In 
my judgment the Constitution should be liberally construed 
in determining the extent of such powers. In that I agree 
with Webster and Hamilton and Lincoln and Washington 
and Marshall, and not with Calhoun or the Democrats of the 
time of the war of the Rebellion and since. But the most 
liberal statesman or jurist never went further than the rule 
I have just stated in claiming constitutional powers for our 
government. The Constitution says that Congress may make 
rules and regulations for the government of the territory and 
other property of the United States. That implies that we 
may acquire and regulate territory as we may acquire and use 
other property, such as our ships of war, our cannon, or forts, 
or arsenals. But territory, like other property, can only be 
acquired for constitutional purposes. Now, one constitu- 
tional purpose is to admit new states into the Union. That is 
one of the objects for which the Constitution was framed. 
So we may acquire and hold and govern territory with that 
object in view. But governing subject peoples, and holding 
them for that purpose, is not a constitutional end. On the 
contrary, it is an end which the generation which framed the 
Constitution and the Declaration of Independence declared 
was unrighteous and abhorrent. So, in my opinion, we have 
no constitutional power to acquire territory for the purpose 
of holding it in subjugation, in a state of vassalage or 
serfdom, against the will of its people. 

It is to be noted just here that we have acquired no terri- 



Speeches for Careful Study 349 

tory or other property in the Philippine Islands, save a few 
public buildings. By every other acquisition of territory the 
United States became a great landowner. She owned the 
public lands as she had owned the public lands in the North- 
west ceded to her by the old states. But you own nothing in 
the Philippines. The people own their farms and dwellings 
and cities. The religious orders own the rest. The Filipinos 
desire to do what our English ancestors did in the old days 
when England was Catholic. The laity feared that the 
Church would engross all the land ; so they passed their statute 
of mortmain. You have either got to let the people of the 
Philippine Islands settle this matter for themselves, or you 
must take upon you the delicate duty of settling it for them. 
Your purchase or conquest is a purchase or conquest of 
nothing but sovereignty. It is a sovereignty over a people 
who are never to be admitted to exercise it or share it. 

In the present case, we have not, I repeat, bought any 
property. We have undertaken to buy mere sovereignty. 
There were no public lands in the Philippine Islands, the 
property of Spain, which we have bought and paid for. The 
mountains of ore and nuggets of gold and the hemp-bearing 
fields — do you propose to strip the owners of their rightful 
title? We have undertaken to buy allegiance, pure and 
simple. And allegiance is just what the law of nations de- 
clares you cannot buy. The power of Congress to dispose of 
territory or other property of the United States, invoked in 
this debate, as the foundation of your constitutional right, 
may carry with it in a proper case a right to the allegiance 
of the occupant of the soil we own. But we have not bought 
any property there. The mountains of iron, the nuggets of 
gold, the hemp-bearing fields, the tobacco and sugar and 
coffee are not ours, unless holding first that we can buy of 
Spain an allegiance which this people have shaken off, which 
Spain could not deliver, which does not exist in justice or in 
right, we can then go on and say that the Constitution of the 



350 The Making of an Oration 

United States does not apply to territory, and that we will 
proceed to take the private property of this people for public 
use, without their consent. 

It is understood that the Filipino people propose to dis- 
possess the religious orders of their vast real-estate posses- 
sions. They are Catholics. But they desire to do what 
Catholic England did long before the Reformation — pre- 
venting the engrossment by the Church of vast and valuable 
lands needed by the people. As I understand it, our treaty 
binds us to confirm those titles, and that is one of the things 
that has provoked this people to their desperate resistance. 
Upon the question of the justice of their demand I do not 
now propose to enter. 

Whether the inestimable and imperishable principles of 
human liberty are to be trampled down by the American Re- 
public, and whether its great bulwark and fortress, the 
American Constitution, impregnable from without, is to be 
betrayed from within, is our question now. 

I have been unable to find a single reputable authority 
more than twelve months old for the power now claimed for 
Congress to govern dependent nations or territories not ex- 
pected to become states. The contrary, until this war broke 
out, has been taken as too clear for reasonable question. 

Our territories, so far, have all been places where Amer- 
icans would go to dwell as citizens, to establish American 
homes, to obtain honorable employment, and to build a state. 
Will any man go to the Philippine Islands to dwell, except 
to help govern the people, or to make money by a temporary 
residence? The men of the Philippines, under the Constitu- 
tion and the existing laws, may become your fellow-citizens. 
You will never consent, in the sense of a true citizenship, to 
become theirs. 

Mr. President, our friends who take another view of this 
question like to tell us of the mistakes of the great men of 
other days who have vainly protested against acquisition of 



Speeches for Careful Study 351 

territory. One worthy and most exuberant gentleman in 
another place points out to his hearers the folly of Webster 
and Clay, the delusions of Charles Sumner, and contrasts 
them with the wisdom of Jefferson and Tyler and Polk. Mr. 
Jefferson declared that the acquisition of Louisiana was un- 
constitutional, and wanted a constitutional amendment to 
justify it. I think the general sense of the American people 
is that in that particular Mr. Jefferson was in error, and that 
our power to admit new states clearly involves the power to 
acquire territory from which new states are to be made. I 
wonder, however, if there be any man now alive who now 
holds or who ever did or who ever will hold a seat in either 
house of Congress, willing to say that, having taken an oath 
to support the Constitution, he would, for any purpose of 
public advantage, forswear himself for the sake of a real or 
fancied good to his country. I hope and believe that the 
spirit of Fletcher of Saltoun, who said he would die to serve 
Scotland, but he would not do a base thing to save her, is still 
the spirit of American statesmanship. That exuberant gen- 
tleman contrasts the statesmanship of Polk and Tyler with 
that of Daniel Webster and Henry Clay and Charles Sumner. 
Somehow or other the names of Webster and Clay and Sum- 
ner live in the hearts and on the lips of their countrymen, 
while the men who brought on the Mexican war in the inter- 
ests of slavery are forgotten. I do not think we hear of men 
building to those counselors or celebrating their birthdays or 
writing their lives. In all generations, the statesmen who 
have appealed to righteousness and justice and freedom have 
left an enduring place in the loving memory of their country- 
men, while the men who have counseled them to walk in the 
path of injustice and wrong, even if it led to empire and even 
if they were in the majority in their own day, are forgotten 
and despised. Ah, Mr. President, that gentleman says we are 
the anointed of the Lord as the Jews were the anointed of 
the Lord. But the Jewish empire is forgotten. The sands 



352 The Making of an Oration 

of the desert cover the foundations of her cities. The spider 
spins its thread, and the owl makes its midnight perch, in 
their palaces. But still those little words, " Thou shalt not 
steal; thou shalt not covet that which is thy neighbor's; 
whatever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even 
so again unto them," shine through the ages, blazing and 
undimmed. Mr. President, you may speculate; you may 
refine ; you may doubt ; you may deny. But the one foremost 
action in our history, is the writing upon its pages those 
simple and sublime opening sentences of the Declaration of 
Independence. And the men who stand by it shall live in 
the eternal memory of mankind; and the men who depart 
from it, however triumphant and successful in their little 
policies, shall perish only to be forgotten, or shall be remem- 
bered only to be despised. 

When hostilities broke out, February 5, 1899, we had no 
occupancy of and no title of any kind to any portion of the 
Philippine territory except the town and bay of Manila. 
Everything else was in the peaceful possession of the inhab- 
itants. In such a condition of things, Mr. President, inter- 
national law speaks to us with its awful mandate. It 
pronounces their proposed action sheer usurpation and rob- 
bery. You have no better title, according to the law of 
nations, to reduce this people to subjection than you have 
to subjugate Mexico or Haiti or Belgium or Switzerland. 

This is the settled doctrine, as declared by our own great 
masters of jurisprudence. 

You have no right, according to the law of nations, to 
obtain by purchase or acquisition sovereignty over a people 
which is not actually exercised by the country which under- 
takes to convey or yield it. 

It is a familiar principle of the common law that you can- 
not make a lawful purchase of land of which the seller is 
disseized, or of a chattel of which he is dispossessed. The 
reason of this doctrine is to prevent the purchase of lawsuits. 



Speeches for Careful Study 353 

This rule applies with tenfold force to undertaking to pur- 
chase human beings when their country and the selling 
power is dispossessed at the time of the sale, and where the 
title can be enforced only by war. 

We have not yet completed the acquisition. But at the 
time we entered upon it, and at the time of this alleged pur- 
chase, the people of the Philippine Islands, as appears by 
General Otis's, by Admiral Dewey's report, and the report 
of officers for whom they vouched, held their entire territory, 
with the exception of the single town of Manila. They had, 
as appears from these reports, a full organized government. 
They had an army fighting for independence, admirably 
disciplined, according to the statement of ardent advocates 
of expansion. 

Why, Mr. President, is it credible that any American 
statesman, that any American Senator, that any intelligent 
American citizen anywhere, two years ago could have been 
found to affirm that a proceeding like that of the Paris treaty 
could give a just and valid title to sovereignty over a people 
situated as were the people of those islands? A title of 
Spain, originally by conquest, never submitted to nor admit- 
ted by the people of the islands, with frequent insurrections 
at different times for centuries ; and then the yoke all thrown 
off, a constitutional government, schools, colleges, churches, 
universities, hospitals, town governments, a legislature, a 
cabinet, courts, a code of laws, and the whole island occu- 
pied and controlled by its own people, with the single excep- 
tion of one city; with taxes lawfully levied and collected, 
with any army and the beginning of a navy? 

And yet the Senate — the Congress — enacted less than 
two years ago that the people of Cuba — controlling peace- 
ably no part of their island, levying no taxes in any orderly 
or peaceable way, with no administration of justice, no 
cabinet — not only of a right ought to be, but were in fact, 
a free and independent state. I did not give my assent to 



354 The Making of an Oration 

that declaration of fact. I assented to the doctrine that they 
of right ought to be. But I thought the statement of fact 
much calculated to embarrass the Government of the United 
States, if it were bound by that declaration ; and it has been 
practically disregarded by the administration ever since. 
But the question now is a very different one. You not only 
deny that the Filipinos are, but you deny that they of right 
ought to be, free and independent; and you recognize Spain 
as entitled to sell to you the sovereignty of an island where 
she was not at the time occupying a foot of territory, where 
her soldiers were held captives by the government of the 
island, — a government to which you had delivered over a 
large number of Spanish prisoners to be held as captives. 
And yet you come here today and say that they not only are 
not, but that they of right ought not to be free and inde- 
pendent ; and when you are pressed you answer us by talking 
about mountains of iron and nuggets of gold, and trade with 
China. 

I affirm that you cannot get by conquest, and you cannot 
get by purchase, according to the modern law of nations, 
according to the law of nations as accepted and expounded 
by the United States, sovereignty over a people, or title to 
a territory, of which the power that undertakes to sell it, 
or the power from which you undertake to wrest it, has not 
the actual possession and dominion. Under municipal law 
you cannot buy a horse of which the seller is dispossessed; 
you cannot buy a foot of land of which he is disseized. You 
cannot purchase a lawsuit. Under international law you 
cannot buy a people from a power that has no actual domin- 
ion over them. You cannot buy a war. More than this, you 
cannot buy a tyrant's claim to subject again an oppressed 
people who have achieved their freedom. 

You cannot buy the liberties of a people from a dispos- 
sessed tyrant, liberties that they have bravely won for 
themselves in arms. You cannot buy sovereignty like mer- 



Speeches for Careful Study 355 

chandise and men like sheep. The King of England kept, 
down to 1800, the title of Duke of Normandy and King of 
France. Could any other country or all Europe together 
have bought France from King George H I wonder what 
would have happened if, instead of acknowledging our inde- 
pendence, any time before the French treaty, France had 
bought England out and undertaken to assert her title to the 
United States. These questions have to be answered, not 
amid the shouting and applause of a political campaign, not 
in party platforms, not alone in a single campaign or a single 
generation. They have got to be answered to history, to the 
instructed conscience of the civilized world, when the pas- 
sions and the greed and ambitions of a single generation 
have gone by and are cold. And there will be to them but 
one answer. 

I shall show beyond all question or cavil, from the evi- 
dence of our own commanders, that this was a people. They 
were a people who had taken arms for liberty. They had 
achieved liberty. They had taken arms to establish a repub- 
lic. They had established a republic — the first republic of 
the Orient. 

Now, international law has something to say about this 
matter. Will the American people, for the first time in their 
history, disregard its august mandate? 

You gentlemen who desire to hold on to the Philippine 
Islands are trying to plant the United States squarely upon 
this doctrine. You must affirm that a people rising for their 
own liberties against a tyrant, and having got actual posses- 
sion of territory, and having dispossessed the oppressor, have 
no rightful title thereto. 

Not only are we violating our own Constitution, and the 
great precepts of the Declaration of Independence which, as 
the Supreme Court of the United States has declared, is to 
control and interpret, being as the Court says, but the letter 
of which the Declaration is the spirit, but we are equally 



356 The Making of an Oration 

violating the accepted precepts of the law of nations as 
expounded by our own great authorities. 

If there is one thing above others which is the glory of 
the American Republic, it is the respect and obedience it has 
ever paid to international law. It is that law, the product 
of Christianity, which prevents every weak nation on the 
earth from becoming the prey of the stronger ones. It is to 
nations what the conscience is to the individual soul. It finds 
its enforcement and sanction in the public opinion of the civil- 
ized world, a power, according to Mr. Webster, stronger 
than armies or navies. No nation escapes the penalty of its 
infraction. As Mr. Webster says, it pursues the conqueror 
to the very scene of his ovation, and wounds him with the 
sting that belongs to the consciousness of having outraged 
the opinion of mankind. 

From many authorities I will cite a few. 

First, President McKinley, in the language so often 
quoted. When the President said that — 

" Forcible annexation, according to our American code of 
morals, would be criminal aggression/' 

was he a copperhead? Was he disloyal to the flag? Was 
not he a Republican? Was there ever an utterance so cal- 
culated to give courage to Aguinaldo and his people as that ? 

When he said, — 

" Human rights and constitutional privileges must not be 
forgotten in the race for wealth and commercial supremacy. 
The government of the people must be by the people and not 
by a few of the people. It must rest upon the free consent 
of the governed and all of the governed. Power, it must be 
remembered, which is secured by oppression or usurpation or 
by any form of injustice, is soon dethroned. We have no 
right in law or morals to usurp that which belongs to another, 
whether it is property or power," — 
was he a traitor? 



Speeches for Careful Study 357 

I suppose Chancellor Kent is recognized everywhere as 
the ablest American writer on jurisprudence, unless some of 
us were to agree with Kent himself, in assigning the 
superiority to Story. He says: 

" Full sovereignty cannot be supposed to have passed by 
the mere words of the treaty without actual delivery. To 
complete the right of property, the right to the thing and the 
possession of the thing must be united. This is a necessary 
principle in the law of property in all systems of jurispru- 
dence. 

M The law of property applies to the right of territory no 
less than to other rights. The practice of nations has been 
conformable to this principle, and the conventional law of 
nations is full of instances of this kind." 

Sumner said in his speech before the Republican State 
Convention of Massachusetts in 1869: 

" And he knows our country little, and little also of that 
great liberty of ours, who supposes that we could receive 
such a transfer. On each side there is impossibility. Terri- 
tory may be conveyed, but not a people. " 

But why multiply citations to a Senate who, within two 
years, affirmed that Cuba of a right ought to be free and 
independent, and to a Congress and a President that declared 
war to make that declaration good? You were stating a 
doctrine of public law, were you not? You were not uttering 
a lying revolutionary pronunciamento. You were speaking 
for a great nation on a solemn occasion. You were speaking 
words of truth and soberness, words you mean to make good 
with the lives of your sons. The first and the last declara- 
tion of public law ever made by the American people, the 
declaration of 1776 and the declaration of 1898, are in full 
accord and harmony. They both justify the Philippine 
people and condemn us. 

The Declaration of Independence is not so much a declara- 
tion of rights as a declaration of duties. It prescribes a rule 



358 The Making of an Oration 

of conduct for men in the same state to one another, and for 
the nations of the earth for one another. Like the golden 
rule, it makes the law of individual right the law also of 
individual duty. Do Senators reflect how this " imperialism," 
as they call it, is inaugurating a revolution not only in the law 
of nations, not only in the fundamental law by which the 
people of the United States have governed themselves until 
now, not only in the interpretation of the Constitution, but 
in the moral law itself? As I hear the utterances of some 
worthy gentlemen taking the word of God upon their lips, it 
seems to me as if they thought the balance of the universe 
itself had changed within this year, and that God had gone 
over to the side of Satan. 

There is one question I should like to put to the Repub- 
lican 4 majority in the Senate and to the Republican party 
in the country : Is this doctrine true or is it false ? Are you 
to stand on it any longer, or are you going to whistle it down 
the wind? 

Thomas Jefferson declared it, this precise doctrine, now 
at stake here. John Quincy Adams reaffirmed it again and 
again. Abraham Lincoln said he was willing to be assassi- 
nated for it. Charles Sumner was almost assassinated for it 
in his place in the Senate Chamber. Republican National 
Conventions in 1856 and i860 and in later years have re- 
affirmed it again and again. President McKinley, two years 
ago, made the most extreme statement of it to be found in 
literature. 

Now this thing is true or it is a lying pretense. If it be a 
lying pretense, the country has stood on a lie during its whole 
history. If it be true the country is dishonored when we 
depart from it. For myself, I believe it is true ; I have tried 
to live by it ; I am contented to die by it ; my love of country 
rests on it; my pride of ancestry rests on it. To me that is 
what the flag symbolizes and stands for. 

I believe that utterance made at Philadelphia in 1776 to 



Speeches for Careful Study 359 

have been the greatest evangel that ever came to mankind 
since the story of Bethelehem. Like the shot 5 fired at Con- 
cord, it was heard around the world. It was heard with fear in 
the palace of the tyrant; it was heard with joy in the huts 
where poor men dwelt. I reverently believe it was heard with 
joy in heaven itself. 

I believe, also, that if the gloss put upon that great declara- 
tion by the Senator from Connecticut had been uttered then, 
it would have been heard with a burst of derisive laughter in 
hell, and Satan himself would have led the chorus. 

We have had so far some fundamental doctrine, some 
ideals to which this people have been devoted. Have you 
anything to give us in their place? You are trying to knock 
out the corner-stones. Is there any material from your 
swamp and mud and morass from which you can make a new 
foundation for our temple? 

Gentlemen tell us that the bill of the Senator from Wis- 
consin is copied from that introduced in Jefferson's time for 
the purchase of Louisiana. Do you claim that you propose 
to deal with these people as Jefferson meant to deal with 
Louisiana? You talk of Alaska, of Florida, of California; 
do you mean to deal with the Philippines as we mean to deal 
with Alaska and dealt with Florida and California? 

It was safe to give Jefferson — who thought it wicked to 
govern a people against its will — a power with which gen- 
tlemen who think it is right ought never to be trusted. 

I have spoken of the Declaration of Independence as a 
solemn affirmation of public law, but it is more than that. It 
is a solemn pledge of national faith and honor. It is a bap- 
tismal vow. It is the bedrock of our republican institutions. 
It is, as the Supreme Court declared, the soul and spirit of 
which the Constitution is but the body and lettef. It is the 
light by which the Constitution must be read. The states- 
man or the party who will not stand by the Declaration and 
obey it is never to be trusted anywhere to keep an oath to 



360 The Making of an Oration 

support the Constitution. To such a statesman, whenever 
his ambition or his passion shall incline him, to such a party, 
whenever its fancied advantage shall tempt it, there will be 
no constitutional restraint. It will bend the Constitution to 
its desire, never its desire to the Constitution. 

There is expansion enough in it, but it is the expansion of 
freedom and not of despotism; of life, not of death. Never 
was such growth in all human history as that from the seed 6 
Thomas Jefferson planted. The parable of the mustard seed, 
than which, as Edward Everett said, " The burning pen of 
inspiration, ranging heaven and earth for a similitude, can 
find nothing more appropriate or expressive to which to liken 
the kingdom of God," is repeated again : " Whereunto 7 
shall we liken it, or with what comparison shall we compare 
it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which when it is sown 
in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth. 
But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater 
than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches, so that the 
fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it." This is 
the expansion of Thomas Jefferson. It has covered the con- 
tinent. It is on both the seas. It has saved South America. 
It is revolutionizing Europe. It is the expansion of freedom. 
It differs from your tinsel, pinchbeck, pewter expansion as the 
growth of a healthy youth into a strong man differs from the 
expansion of an anaconda when he swallows his victim. 
Ours is the expansion of Thomas Jefferson. Yours is the 
expansion of Aaron Burr. It is destined to as short a life 
and to a like fate. 

Until within two years the American people have been 
wont to appeal to the Declaration of Independence as the 
foremost state paper in history. As the years go round, the 
fourth of July has been celebrated wherever Americans could 
gather together, at home or abroad. To have signed it, to an 
American, was better than a title of nobility. It was no pas- 
sionate utterance of a hasty enthusiasm. There was nothing 



Speeches for Careful Study 361 

of the radical in it; nothing of Rousseau; nothing of the 
French Revolution. It was the sober utterance of the sober- 
est men of the soberest generation that ever lived. It was the 
declaration of a religious people at the most religious period 
of their history. It was a declaration not merely of rights 
but of duties. It was an act not of revolution but of construc- 
tion. It was the corner stone, the foundation stone, of a 
great national edifice wherein the American people were to 
dwell forevermore. The language was the language of 
Thomas Jefferson. But the thought was the thought of every 
one of his associates. The men of the Continental Congress 
meant to plant their new nation on eternal verities which no 
man possessed by the spirit of liberty could ever thereafter 
undertake to challenge. As the Christian religion was rested 
by its author on two 8 sublime commandments on which hang 
all the law and the prophets, so these men rested republican 
liberty on two sublime verities on which it must stand if it 
can stand at all ; in which it must live, or bear no life. One 
was the equality of the individual man with every other in 
political right. The other is that you are now seeking to 
overthrow — the right of every people to institute their own 
government, laying its foundations on such principles and 
organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most 
likely to effect their safety and happiness, and so to assume 
among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station 
to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them. 
Equality of individual manhood and equality of individual 
states. This is the doctrine which the Republican party is 
now urged to deny. 

To justify that denial the advocates of the policy of im- 
perialism are driven to the strange affirmation that Thomas 
Jefferson did not believe and contradicted it when he pur- 
chased Louisiana; that John Quincy Adams did not believe 
and contradicted it when he bought Florida; that Abraham 
Lincoln did not believe it and contradicted it when he put 



362 The Making of an Oration 

down the rebellion; that 9 Charles Sumner did not believe it 
and contradicted it when he bought Alaska. They say 10 that 
because, with the full and practical consent of the men who 
occupied them, these men bought great spaces of territory 
occupied by sparse and scattered populations, neither owning 
it nor pretending to own it, nor capable of occupying it or 
governing it, destitute of every single attribute which makes 
or can make a nation or a people, those statesmen of ours, 
designing to make the territory acquired into equal states, to 
be dwelt in and governed under our Constitution by men with 
rights equal to our own — that therefore you may get by 
purchase or by conquest an unwilling people, occupying and 
governing a thickly settled territory, possessing every attribute 
of a national life, enjoying a freedom that they themselves 
have achieved; that you may crush out their national life; 
that you may overthrow their institutions; that you may 
strangle their freedom; that you may put over them govern- 
ors whom you appoint, and in whose appointment they have 
no voice ; that you may make laws for them in your interest 
and not in theirs; that you may overthrow their republican 
liberty, and in doing this you appeal to the example of 
Thomas Jefferson, and John Quincy Adams and Abraham 
Lincoln and Charles Sumner. 

Thomas Jefferson comes down in history with the Declar- 
ation of Independence in one hand and the title deed of 
Louisiana in the other. Do you think his left hand knew 
not what his right hand did? Do you think these two im- 
mortal transactions contradicted each other? Do you think 
he bought men like sheep and paid for them in gold? It is 
true the men of the Declaration held slaves. Jefferson 
felt the inconsistency and declared that he trembled for his 
country when he felt that God was just. But he lived and 
died in the expectation that the Declaration would abolish 
slavery, which it did. 



Speeches for Careful Study 363 

In every accession of territory to this country ever made 
we recognized fully the doctrine of the consent of the gov- 
erned and the doctrine that territory so acquired must be 
held to be made into states. 

The confusion of the arguments of our friends on the 
other side comes from confounding the statement in the 
Declaration of the rights of individuals with the statement 
of the rights of nations, or peoples, in dealing with one 
another. 

The whole Declaration is a statement of political rights 
and political relations and political duties. 

First. Every man is equal in political rights, including the 
right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, to every 
other. 

Second. No people can come under the government of 
any other people, or of any ruler, without its consent. The 
law of nature and of nature's God entitle every people to its 
separate and equal station among the powers of the earth. 
Our fathers were not dealing, in this clause, with the doc- 
trine of the social compact; they were not considering the 
rights of minorities ; they used the word " people " as equiv- 
alent to " nation," or " state," as an organized political being, 
and not as a mere aggregate of persons not collected or 
associated. They were not thinking of Robinson Crusoe in 
his desolate island, or of scattered settlers, still less of pred- 
atory bands roaming over vast regions they could neither 
own nor occupy. They were affirming the right of each of 
the thirteen colonies separately, or all together, to throw off 
the yoke of George III. and to separate itself or themselves 
from Great Britain. Now you must either admit that what 
they said was true, or you must affirm the contrary. 

The question is put with an air of triumph as if it were 
somehow hard to answer. If this doctrine of yours apply to 
a million men, why does it not apply to a hundred men? At 
what point of the census do men get these God-given rights 



364 The Making of an Oration 

of yours? Well, the answer is easy enough. Our fathers, 
in the affirmation of the Declaration of Independence you 
are now denying, were speaking of the equal rights of 
nations, of their duties to each other. The exact point where 
a few scattered settlements become a people, or a few 
nomadic tribes a nation, may not admit of mathematical 
definition. At what point does a brook become a river? 
When does a pond become a lake, or a lake a sea, or a breeze 
a hurricane? You cannot tell me. But surely there are 
nations and peoples, there is organized national life; and 
there are scattered habitations and wandering tribes to whom 
these titles are never applied. Louisiana, Alaska, Florida, 
New Mexico, California, neither had, nor did their inhabit- 
ants claim to have, such a national vitality when we acquired 
them. And if there were anything of that sort when we 
annexed them, it desired to come to us. And it came to us 
to become a part of us — bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh, 
life of our life, soul of our soul. 

But I can give you two pretty safe practical rules, quite 
enough for this day's purpose. Each of them will solve your 
difficulty, if you have a difficulty and want to solve it. That 
is a people, that is a power of the earth, that is a nation en- 
titled as such to its separate and equal station among the 
powers of the earth by the laws of nature and of nature's 
God, that has a written constitution, a settled territory, an 
independence it has achieved, an organized army, a congress, 
courts, schools, universities, churches, the Christian religion; 
a village life in orderly, civilized, self-governed municipali- 
ties; a pure family life, newspapers, books, statesmen who 
can debate questions of international law, like Mabini, and 
organized governments, like Aguinaldo; poets like Jose 
Rizal. The Boer republic is a nation, and it is a crime to 
crush out its life, though its population be less than Provi- 
dence, Rhode Island. Each one of our old thirteen states 






Speeches for Careful Study 365 

would have been a nation even if it had stood alone. And 
the Philippine republic with twenty the number of Boers, 
a people more than the whole thirteen states who joined in 
the Declaration put together, is a nation, and it is a greater 
crime still to crush out its life. 

There is another rule that will help any Senator out of his 
difficulties. It must be a comfort to every one of you in his 
perplexity. Every people is of right entitled to its independ- 
ence that has got as far as Cuba had in the spring of 1898. 
You all admit that. Admit ! You all avow, affirm, strenu- 
ously insist on that. You will all pledge your lives and for- 
tunes and sacred honor for that. You will go to war and 
send your sons to war to maintain that. If Spain shall deny 
it, or any other country but Great Britain, woe be to her. 
It isn't necessary, according to you, to have a constitution; 
it is n't necessary to have courts ; it is n't necessary to have 
a capital ; it is n't necessary to have a school. The seat of 
government may be in the saddle. It isn't necessary to 
occupy a city, or to have a seaport ; it is n't necessary to hold 
permanently an acre of land. It is n't necessary to have got 
the invader out of the country ; it is n't necessary to have a 
tenth part of the claim the Filipinos have, or to have done 
a tenth part of the things the Filipinos have done. You 
settled all this for yourselves and for the country long ago — 
March 10, 1898. So I assume you have only put this conun- 
drum for the pleasure of answering it yourselves. 

Senators, if there were no Constitution, if there were no 
Declaration, if there were no international law, if there 
were nothing but the history of the past two years, the 
American people would be bound in honor, if there be honor, 
bound in common honesty, if there be honesty, not to crush 
out this Philippine republic, and not to wrest from this people 
its independence. The history of our dealing with the Phil- 
ippine people is found in the reports of our commanders. 



366 The Making of an Oration 

It is all contained in our official documents, and in published 
statements of General Anderson, and in the speeches of the 
President. It is little known to the country today. When 
it shall be known, I believe it will cause a revolution in public 
sentiment. 

There are twelve hundred islands in the Philippine group. 
They extend as far as from Maine to Florida. They have a 
population variously estimated at from eight to twelve mil- 
lion. There are wild tribes that never heard of Christ, and 
islands that never heard of Spain. But among them are the 
people of the Island of Luzon, numbering three million five 
hundred thousand and the people of the Visayan Islands, 
numbering two million five hundred thousand more. They 
are a Christian and civilized people. They wrested their 
independence from Spain and established a republic. Their 
rights are no more to be affected by the few wild tribes in 
their own mountains or by the dwellers in the other islands 
than the rights of our thirteen states were affected by the 
French in Canada or the Six Nations of New York, or the 
Cherokees of Georgia, or the Indians west of the Mississippi. 
Twice our commanding generals, by their own confessions, 
assured these people of their independence. Clearly and be- 
yond all cavil we formed an alliance w T ith them. We 
expressly asked them to cooperate with us. We handed over 
our prisoners to their keeping; we sought their help in caring 
for our sick and wounded. We were told by them again, 
and again, and again that they were fighting for independ- 
ence. Their purpose was as well known to our generals, to 
the War Department, and to the President, as the fact that 
they were in arms. We never undeceived them until the 
time when hostilities were declared in 1899. The President 
declared again and again that we had no title and claimed no 
right to anything beyond the town of Manila. Hostilities 
were begun by us at a place where we had no right to be, and 



Speeches for Careful Study 367 

were continued by us in spite of Aguinaldo's disavowal and 
regret and offer to withdraw to a line we should prescribe. 
If we crush that republic, despoil that people of their freedom 
and independence, and subject them to our rule, it will be a 
story of shame and dishonor. 

Is it right, is it just, to subjugate this people, to substitute 
our government for their self-government, for the constitu- 
tion they have proclaimed and established, a scheme of gov- 
ernment such as we could devise ten thousand miles away? 

Is it right to put over them officers whom we are to select 
and they are to obey and pay ? 

Is it right to make tariffs for our interests and not theirs? 

Are the interests of the Manila tobacco growers to be 
decided upon hearing given to the tobacco raisers of the 
Connecticut River Valley? 

Are these mountains of iron and nuggets of gold, and 
stores of coal, and hemp-bearing fields, and fruit-bearing 
gardens to be looked upon by our legislators with covetous 
eyes? 

Is it our wealth or their wealth these things are to 
increase? 

There are other pregnant questions, some of which perhaps 
require a little examination and a little study of the reports 
of our commanders. 

Had they rightfully achieved their independence when 
hostilities began between us and them? 

Did they forfeit their independence by the circumstances 
of the war? 

On the whole, have they not shown that they are fit for 
self-government, fit as Cuba, fit as Greece, fit as Spain, fit 
as Japan, fit as Haiti or San Domingo, fit as any country to 
the south of us, from the Rio Grande to Cape Horn, was, 
when with our approval those countries won their liberties 
from Spain? 



368 The Making of an Oration 

Can we rightfully subjugate a people because we think 
them unfit for self-government? 

A little more than fourteen months ago there were pre- 
sented to the Senate two propositions in sharp contrast with 
each other. One was a proposition to deal with the Philip- 
pine Islands as we dealt with Cuba; to assure them of their 
liberty ; to protect them against foreign ambition and to lend 
our aid in restoring order; to speed them with our blessing 
on the pathway of freedom and independence, equal among 
independent nations, making such treaties with them for 
future commerce and intercourse as our advantage and theirs 
would require, and as their goodwill and gratitude might be 
willing to grant. 

The other was to buy them like slaves; to pay for them 
in gold ; to set up against them the dishonored and discredited 
title of Spain, and to conquer them to a sullen submission and 
to a future of perpetual hatred and fear. 

The Senate took its choice. We have had twelve months' 
experience. We can tell already something of the cost of 
this thing. It has cost us more than one hundred and fifty 
millions in money. An increase over 1898 of the cost of the 
Army more than one hundred and twenty-two millions; of 
the Navy, of six millions ; of the pension list, four millions. 

But all this is the merest trifle. It has cost us the lives 
of six thousand men who are dead. It has wrecked the lives 
of other thousands, victims of disease and of wounds. It 
compels us to maintain in the future a large and costly mili- 
tary and naval force. 

You are to keep, certainly, hereafter, fifty thousand private 
soldiers, in the flower of their youth, in that tropical clime. 
What is to be their fate? 

Mr. President, worse than the most lavish expenditure, 
worse than the heaviest burdens of national debt, worse than 
the loss of precious lives, worse than the reduction of wages, 



Speeches for Careful Study 369 

worse than the overthrow of our settled fiscal policies, is the 
price, the terrible price, we are to pay, if there be any lesson 
to be learned, from human experience, in the souls of the 
young men we are to send as soldiers to the tropics. Have 
you read the horrible, the unquotable story which comes from 
the English official reports of the life of the common soldiers 
of the English army in India? I wonder if our enthusiastic 
gentlemen, who prate so glibly of dominion and empire — I 
wonder if our well meaning clergymen, who fancy them- 
selves preaching the gospel of Christ to these yellow congre- 
gations, have read anything or care anything for the lessons 
of experience? 

Hardly a department of the government does not add some 
items of cost incident to a control or knowledge of the late 
Spanish possessions. 

The government of these islands will be a military govern- 
ment, to be assisted and gradually superseded by civil officers. 
No sums adequate to the purpose have been asked for, nor 
has any money been asked to construct and equip coast and 
harbor defenses necessary to military occupation or for the 
improvement of harbors and water ways, cleansing cities 
and towns, construction and maintenance of military and 
other railroads, relief of the needy, and the many items of 
expense incident to the occupation of distant and unprotected 
possessions, peopled by poor and untaught natives, oppressed 
into insurrection, and at present undisciplined to control at 
any time. To keep the army of occupation of sufficient 
strength will involve a fearful drain upon the population of 
the United States, equal to more than double the loss of an 
army in a great battle. The cost of administering justice 
will not be small; the actual and constant rebellions of the 
natives against our rule is a strong probability, and the sullen 
opposition of a home-rule element must be faced and met. 
The islands do not promise to be self-supporting to the extent 



370 The Making of an Oration 

of providing for such contingencies as rebellion, and so the 
annual cost to the people of the United States must be in- 
creased, even as an insurance against an uprising. 

But let us look at the cost other than in money. We are 
to give up many of the ideals [I had almost said every ideal] 
of the Republic. We must give up our great, priceless pos- 
sessions; more precious than jewels or gold, more precious 
than land or power. The counsels of Washington are for us 
no longer; the truths of the Declaration of Independence 
are no longer our maxims of government; the Monroe Doc- 
trine, to which one hemisphere owes its freedom, is gone. The 
counsels of Lincoln, to give effect to which he repeatedly de- 
clared he would welcome assassination itself, are not to be 
listened to hereafter, or, if listened to, it will be by other ears 
than ours. 

Another thing we have lost by last winter's terrible 
blunder. We lost the right to speak with authority in favor 
of peace at the Hague. The world took, I hope and believe, 
a forward step in the great conference. But think what might 
have been ! We have lost the right to offer our sympathy to 
the Boer in his wonderful and gallant struggle against ter- 
rible odds for the republic in Africa. 

O Freedom, dear, if ever man was free, 
In all the ages, earned thy favoring smile, 
This patient man has earned it. In his cause 
Pleads all the world today — 

all the world except the nation that is engaged in crushing 
out a republic in the Philippines. 

We have lost our power to speak with authority in behalf 
of the disarmament of nations. We must prepare ourselves 
for a great standing army. We already hear the demand 
for a large standing army, and a navy equal to that of Eng- 
land. The American child hereafter must be born with a 



Speeches for Careful Study 371 

mortgage round his neck. The American laborer hereafter 
must stagger through life with a soldier on his back. 

It is said that it is not a sordid argument, or a sordid na- 
tion, that considers the advantage of trade and commercial 
intercourse, and that is true if the argument be used in its 
proper place. The consideration becomes a sordid, a base, 
an ignoble argument when we use it to determine the question 
whether we shall do justice. 

When you are tempted to take what belongs to another, 
to crush out the liberties of a people, then the suggestion 
that you are to make money by the transaction becomes as 
sordid and base a suggestion as ever was whispered into a 
covetous and greedy ear. 

When you are asked to abandon your cherished principles, 
your lofty ideals, your benignant influence on mankind, to 
turn your polar star, your morning star into a comet, the sug- 
gestion of money-getting seems infinitely pitiful. 

But we are told that if we oppose the policy of our imperi- 
alistic and expanding friends we are bound to suggest some 
policy of our own as a substitute for theirs. We are asked 
what we would do in this difficult emergency. It is a question 
not difficult to answer. I, for one, am ready to answer it. 

i. I would declare now that we will not take these islands 
to govern them against their will. 

2. I would reject a cession of sovereignty which implies 
that a sovereignty may be bought and sold and delivered with- 
out the consent of the people. Spain had no rightful sover- 
eignty over the Philippine Islands. She could not rightfully 
sell it to us. We could not rightfully buy it from her. 

3. I would require all foreign governments to keep out 
of these islands. 

4. I would offer to the people of the Philippines our help 
in maintaining order until they have a reasonable opportunity 
to establish a government of their own. 



372 The Making of an Oration 

5. I would aid them by advice, if they desire it, to set up 
a free and independent government. 

6. I would invite all the great powers of Europe to unite 
in an agreement that that independence shall not be inter- 
fered with by us, by themselves, or by any one of them with- 
out the consent of the others. As to this I am not sure. I 
should like quite as well to tell them that it is not to be done 
whether they consent or not. 

7. I would declare that the United States will enforce the 
same doctrine as applicable to the Philippines that we de- 
clared as to Mexico and Haiti and the South American 
republics. It is true that the Monroe Doctrine, a doctrine 
based largely on our regard for our own interests, is not 
applicable either in terms or in principle to a distant Asiatic 
territory. But undoubtedly, having driven out Spain, we are 
bound, and have the right, to secure to the people we have 
liberated an opportunity, undisturbed and in peace, to establish 
a new government for themselves. 

8. I would then, in a not distant future, leave them to work 
out their own salvation, as every nation on earth, from the 
beginning of time, has wrought out its own salvation. Let 
them work out their own salvation, as our ancestors slowly 
and in long centuries wrought out theirs; as Germany, as 
Switzerland, as France, in briefer periods, wrought out theirs ; 
as Mexico and the South American republics have accom- 
plished theirs, all of them within a century, some of them 
within the life of a generation. To attempt to confer the gift 
of freedom from without, or to impose freedom from without 
on any people, is to disregard all the lessons of history. It 
is to attempt 

A gift of that which is not to be given 

By all the blended powers of earth and heaven. 

9. I would strike out of your legislation the oath of alle- 



i 



Speeches for Careful Study 373 

giance to us, and substitute an oath of allegiance to their own 
country. 

Mr. President, if you once got involved and entangled in 
this policy of dominion and empire, you have not only to get 
the consent of three powers — House, Senate, and President 
— to escape from it, but to the particular plan and scheme and 
method of such escape. 

My friends say they are willing to trust the people and the 
future. And so am I. I am willing to trust the people as our 
fathers trusted them. I am willing to trust the people as they 
have, so far, trusted themselves ; a people regulated, governed, 
constrained by the moral law, by the Constitution, and by the 
Declaration. It is the constitutional, not the unconstitutional, 
will of the American people in which I trust. It is Philip 
sober and not Philip drunk to whom I am willing to trust the 
destiny of myself and my children. A people without a con- 
stitution is, as I have just said, like a man without a con- 
science. It is the least trustworthy and the most dangerous 
force on the face of the earth. The utterances of these gen- 
tlemen, who, when they are reminded of moral and constitu- 
tional restraints, answer us that we are timid, and that they 
trust the people, are talking in the spirit of the French, not 
of the American Revolution; they are talking in the spirit 
which destroys republics, and not in the spirit that builds 
them ; they are talking in the spirit of the later days of Rome, 
and not in the spirit of the early days of any republic that 
ever existed on this side of the ocean or on the other. 

I love and trust the American people. I yield to no man in 
my confidence of the future of the Republic. To me the dear- 
est blessings of life, dearer than property, dearer than home, 
dearer than kindred, are my pride in my country and my hope 
for the future of America. But the people that I trust is the 
people that established the Constitution and which abides by 
its restraints. The people that I trust is the people that made 



374 The Making of an Oration 

the great Declaration, and their children, who mean forever 
to abide by its principles. The country in whose future I 
have supreme and unbounded confidence is the Republic, not 
a despotism on the one hand, or an unchecked and unlicensed 
democracy on the other. It is no mere democracy. It is 
the indissoluble union of indestructible states. I disavow and 
spurn the doctrine that has been more than once uttered by 
the advocates of this policy of imperialism on the floor of the 
Senate, that the sovereignty of the American people is in- 
ferior to any other because it is restrained and confined within 
constitutional boundaries. If that be true, the limited mon- 
archy of England is inferior to the despotism of Russia; if 
that be true, a constitutional republic is inferior to an uncon- 
stitutional usurpation; if that be true, a man restrained by 
the moral law, and obeying the dictates of conscience, is 
inferior to the reckless, hardened, unrestrained criminal. 

I have failed to discover in the speech, public or private, 
of the advocates of this war, or of the press which supports 
it and them, a single expression anywhere of a desire to do 
justice to the people of the Philippine Islands, or of a desire 
to make known to the people of the United States the truth 
of the case. Some of them like the Senator from Indiana 
and the President of the Senate, are outspoken in their pur- 
pose to retain the Philippine Islands forever, to govern them 
ourselves, or to do what they call giving them such a share 
in government as we hereafter may see fit, having regard to 
our own interest, and, as they sometimes add, to theirs. The 
others say, " Hush ! We will not disclose our purpose just 
now. Perhaps we may," as they phrase it, " give them liberty 
sometime. But it is to be a long time first." 

The catchwords, the cries, the pithy and pregnant phrases 
of which all their speech is full, all mean dominion. When a 
man tells you that the American flag must not be hauled 
down where it has once floated, or demands of a shouting 



Speeches for Careful Study 375 

audience, " Who will haul it down? " if he mean anything, he 
means that the people shall be under our dominion forever. 
The man who says, "We will not treat with them till they 
submit; we will not deal with men in arms against the flag," 
says in substance the same thing. One thing there has been, 
at least, given to them as Americans not to say. There is not 
one of these gentlemen who will rise in his place and affirm 
that if he were a Filipino he would not do exactly as the 
Filipinos are doing; that he would not despise them if they 
were to do otherwise. So much, at least, they owe of respect 
to the dead and buried history — the dead and buried history, 
so far as they can slay and bury it — of their country. 

Why, the tariff schemes which are proposed are schemes 
in our interest and not in theirs. If you propose to bring 
tobacco from Porto Rico or from the Philippine Islands on 
the ground that it is for the interest of the people whom you 
are undertaking to govern, for their best interest to raise it 
and sell it to you, every imperialist in Connecticut will be up 
in arms. The nerve in the pocket is still sensitive, though 
the nerve in the heart may be dumb. You will not let their 
sugar come here to compete with the cane sugar of Louisiana 
or the beet sugar of California or the Northwest, and in 
determining that question you mean to think, not of their 
interest but of yours. The good government you are to give 
them is a government under which their great productive 
and industrial interests, when peace comes, are to be totally 
and absolutely disregarded by their government. You are 
not only proposing to do that, but you expect to put another 
strain on the Constitution to accomplish it. 

Why, Mr. President, the atmosphere of both legislative 
chambers, even now, is filled with measures proposing to 
govern and tax these people for our interest, and not for 
theirs. Your men who are not alarmed at the danger to con- 
stitutional liberty are up in arms when there is danger to to- 



376 The Making of an Oration 

bacco. As an eloquent Republican colleague said elsewhere, 
" Beware that you do not create another Ireland under the 
American flag." Beware that you do not create many other 
Irelands — another Ireland in Porto Rico ; another Ireland in 
Cuba ; many other Irelands in the Philippines ! The great com- 
plaint of Ireland for eight centuries was that England framed 
her tariff, not for Ireland's interest, but for her own; that 
when she dealt with the great industry of that beautiful isle 
she was thinking of the English exchequer and of the English 
manufacturer and of the English landowner ; and she reduced 
Ireland to beggary. Let us not repeat that process. 

Certainly the flag should never be lowered from any moral 
field over which it has once waved. To follow the flag is to 
follow the principles of freedom and humanity for which it 
stands. The claim that we must follow it when it stands for 
injustice or oppression is like claiming that we must take the 
nostrums of the quack doctor who stamps it on his wares, or 
follow every scheme of wickedness or fraud, if only the flag 
be put at the head of the prospectus. The American flag is 
in more danger from the imperialists than it would be if the 
whole of Christendom were to combine its power against it. 
Foreign violence at worst could only rend it. But these men 
are trying to stain it. 

It is claimed — what I do not believe — that these appeals 
have the sympathy of the American people. It is said that the 
statesman who will lay his ear to the ground will hear their 
voice. I do not believe it. The voice of the American people 
does not come from the ground. It comes from the sky. It 
comes from the free air. It comes from the mountains where 
liberty dwells. Let the statesman who is fit to deal with the 
question of liberty or to utter the voice of a free people lift 
his ear to the sky — not lay it to the ground. 

Mr. President, it was once my good fortune to witness an 
impressive 11 spectacle in this chamber, when the Senators 



Speeches for Careful Study 377 

answered to their names in rendering solemn judgment in a 
great state trial. By a special provision each Senator was 
permitted, when he cast his vote, to state his reason in a 
single sentence. I have sometimes fancied that the question 
before us now might be decided, not alone by the votes of us 
who sit here today, but of the great men who have been our 
predecessors in this chamber and in the Continental Congress 
from the beginning of the Republic. 

Would that the roll might be called ! The solemn assembly 
sits silent while the Chair puts the question whose answer is 
so fraught with the hopes of liberty and the destiny of the 
Republic. 

The roll is called. George Washington : " No. Why should 
we quit our own, to stand on foreign ground ? " 

Alexander Hamilton : " No. The Declaration of Inde- 
pendence is the fundamental constitution of every state." 

Thomas Jefferson : " No. Governments are instituted 
among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the 
governed. Every people ought to have that separate and 
equal station among the nations of the world to which the 
laws of nature and nature's God entitle them." 

John Adams : " No. I stood by the side of Jefferson 
when he brought in the Declaration ; I was its champion on the 
floor of Congress. After our long estrangement, I came back 
to his side again." 

James Madison: "No. The object of the Federal Con- 
stitution is to secure the union of the thirteen primitive states, 
which we know to be practicable, and to add to them such other 
states as may arise in their own bosoms or in their neighbor- 
hood, which we cannot doubt will be practicable." 

Thomas Corwin : " No. I said in the days of the Mexican 
War : ' If I were a Mexican, as I am an American, I would 
welcome you with bloody hands to hospitable graves ; ' and 
Ohio today honors and loves me for that utterance beyond 
all her other sons." 



378 The Making of an Oration 

Daniel Webster : " No. Under our Constitution there 
can be no dependencies. Wherever there is in the Christian 
and civilized world a nationality of character, then a na- 
tional government is the necessary and proper result. There 
is not a civilized and intelligent man on earth that enjoys 
satisfaction with his condition if he does not live under the 
government of his own nation, his own country. A nation 
cannot be happy but under a government of its own choice. 
When I depart from these sentiments I depart from myself." 

William H. Seward : " No. The f ramers of the Constitu- 
tion never contemplated colonies or provinces at all: they 
contemplated states only; nothing less than states — perfect 
states, equal states, sovereign states. There is reason, there 
is sound political wisdom, in this provision of the Constitu- 
tion — excluding colonies, which are always subject to op- 
pression, and excluding provinces, which always tend to 
corrupt and enfeeble and ultimately to break down the 
parent state." 

John Marshall : " No. The power to declare war was not 
conferred upon Congress for the purpose of aggression or 
aggrandizement. A war declared by Congress can never be 
presumed to be waged for the purpose of conquest or the 
acquisition of territory, nor does the law declaring the war 
imply an authority to the President to enlarge the limits of 
the United States by subjugating the enemy's country." 

John Quincy Adams: "No. The territories I helped 
bring into the nation were to be dwelt in by free men and 
made into free states." 

Aaron Burr : " Yes. You are repeating my buccaneering 
expedition down the Mississippi. I am to be vindicated at 
last!" 

Abraham Lincoln : " No. I said in Independence Hall at 
Philadelphia, just before I entered upon my great office, that 
I rested upon the truth Thomas Jefferson had just uttered, 



Speeches for Careful Study 379 

and that I was ready to be assassinated, if need be, in 
order to maintain it. And I was assassinated to maintain 
it." 

Charles Sumner : " No. I proclaimed it when I brought 
in Alaska. I sealed my devotion with my blood also. It was 
my support and solace through those long and weary hours 
when the red-hot iron pressed upon my spine, 12 the very 
source and origin of agony, and I did not flinch. He knows 
our country little, little also of that great liberty of ours, 
who supposes that we could receive such a transfer. On each 
side there is impossibility. Territory may be conveyed, but 
not people." 

William McKinley: "There has been a cloud before my 
vision for a moment, but I see clearly now ! I go back to what 
I said two years ago : ' Forcible annexation is criminal ag- 
gression; governments derive their just powers from the 
consent of the governed, not some of them, but all of them.' 
I will stand with the Fathers of the Republic. I will stand 
with the founders of the Republican party. No." 

Mr. President, I know how imperfectly I have stated this 
argument. I know how feeble is a single voice amid this din 
and tempest, this delirium of empire. It may be that the 
battle for this day is lost. But I have an assured faith in the 
future. I have an assured faith in justice and the love of 
liberty of the American people. The 13 stars in their courses 
fight for freedom. The Ruler of the heavens is on that side. 
If the battle today go against it, I appeal to another day, not 
distant and sure to come. I appeal from the clapping of 
hands and the stamping of feet and the brawling and the 
shouting to the quiet chamber where the Fathers gathered 
in Philadelphia. I appeal from the Spirit of Trade to the 
Spirit of Liberty. I appeal from the Empire to the Republic. 
I appeal from the millionaire, and the boss, and the wire- 
puller, and the manager, to the statesman of the older time, 



380 The Making of an Oration 

in whose eyes a guinea never glistened, who lived and died 
poor, and who left to his children and to his countrymen a 
good name, 14 far better than riches. I appeal from the 
Present, bloated with material prosperity, drunk with the 
lust of Empire, to another and a better age. I appeal from 
the Present to the Future and to the Past. 

NOTES ON SENATOR HOAR'S SPEECH 

i. Matt. IV:8-io. 

2. The so-called " McKinley Tariff." 

3. Does this appeal to precedent strengthen the argument? 

4. It must be remembered, if we would appreciate the whole 
speech, that Senator Hoar was a Republican, although just then 
on the question at issue he was opposing the course of a majority 
of his party. 

5. The words were obviously suggested by Emerson's poem on 
Concord Bridge, 

" Here the embattled farmers stood, 
And fired the shot heard round the world." 

6. The speaker refers, of course, to the many new states that 
have been built from the territory acquired by the " Louisiana 
Purchase." 

7. Matt. XIII: 31; Mark IV 131; Lk. XIII : 19. 

8. Mark XII : 28-31. 

9. What were the circumstances attending the purchase of 
Alaska? What did Sumner have to do with that purchase? 

10. Has this sentence unity and clearness? Improve it if you 
can, by breaking it up into two or more sentences. 

11. An allusion to the voting at the impeachment trial of 
President Johnson. 

12. A reference to his medical treatment after the assault upon 
Sumner by Preston Brooks. 

13. Suggested by the words found in Judges V:20: "The 
stars in their courses fought against Sisera." 

14. See Prov. XXII : 1. 

15. Make a careful plan of this speech, noting the order and 
kinds of arguments. Compare especially the sentence forms with 
those in the speech of Wendell Phillips. Which would be most 
likely to appeal to a popular audience ? Which is more " speak- 
able?" 



PAUL TO THE JEWS 

(Acts XXII) 

(This speech was made, not to an audience of Greek heathen, 
nor yet to the royal court of a half oriental monarch, but to a 
raging mob of Jewish fanatics, howling for the speaker's blood. 
Rescued from the hands of the rioters by a company of Roman 
soldiers, he is taken to the castxe for safety. As he is going up the 
stairway to the castle, he obtains permission to speak to the mob 
that followed him. " Paul, standing on the stairway beckoned 
with the hand unto the people; and when there was made a 
great silence, he spake unto them in the Hebrew tongue." The 
student should read the whole account and picture to himself 
that dramatic scene when Paul silences the tumult by that imperi- 
ous gesture, and speaks to the mob that had been clamoring for 
his life. Note how his language spoken to his countrymen dif- 
fers from his language spoken to the Athenians.) 

Brethren and fathers, hear ye the defence which I make 
now unto you. 

And when they heard that he spake unto them in the 
Hebrew language, they were the more quiet: and he saith, 

I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in 
this city, at the feet of Gamaliel, instructed according to the 
strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for 
God, even as ye all are this day : and I persecuted this Way 
unto the death, binding and delivering unto prisons both men 
and women. As also the high priest doth bear me witness, 
and all the estate of the elders: from whom also I received 
letters unto the brethren, and journeyed to Damascus, to 
bring them also which were there unto Jerusalem in bonds, 
for to be punished. And it came to pass, that, as I made my 

381 



382 The Making of an Oration 

journey, and drew nigh unto Damascus, about noon, suddenly 
there shone from heaven a great light round about me. And 
I fell onto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, 
Saul, Saul, Why persecutest thou me ? And I answered, Who 
art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Naza- 
reth, whom thou persecutest. And they that were with me 
beheld indeed the light, but they heard not the voice of him 
that spake to me. And I said, What shall I do, Lord ? And 
the Lord said unto me, Arise, and go into Damascus; and 
there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed 
thee to do. And when I could not see for the glory of that 
light, being led by the hand of them that were with me, I 
came into Damascus. And one Ananias, a devout man ac- 
cording to the law, well reported of by all the Jews that 
dwelt there, came unto me, and standing by me said unto me, 
Brother Saul, receive thy sight. And in that very hour I 
looked up on him. And he said, The God of our fathers hath 
appointed thee to know his will, and to see the Righteous 
One, and to hear a voice from his mouth. For thou shalt be 
a witness for him unto all men of what thou hast seen and 
heard. And now why tarriest thou? Arise and be baptized, 
and wash away thy sins, calling on his name. And it came 
to pass, that, when I had returned to Jerusalem, and while 
I prayed in the temple, I fell into a trance, and saw him 
saying unto me, Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jeru- 
salem: because they will not receive of thee testimony 
concerning me. And I said, Lord, they themselves know 
that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them that 
believed on thee : and when the blood of Stephen thy witness 
was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting, and keep- 
ing the garments of them that slew him. And he said unto 
me, Depart: for I will send thee forth far hence unto the 
Gentiles. 



i 



PAUL'S SPEECH BEFORE THE KING 

(Acts XXVI) 

(The following speech was delivered before King Agrippa 
and his queen, Bernice, who were on a visit to Festus, governor 
of the province, at Caesarea. Paul was a prisoner, accused by 
the Jews of various offenses against both the Jewish and Roman 
law. He had pleaded not guilty and as a Roman citizen had ap- 
pealed to the Emperor at Rome. Both Agrippa and Bernice were 
familiar with the Jewish religion, and on hearing of Paul had 
expressed a desire to hear him. The speech was given, with 
the king, queen, "chief captains and the principal men of the 
city " — all in royal pomp — as listeners. For a full account of the 
situation the three preceding chapters should be read. The 
student should make a careful analysis and plan of the speech, 
fully to appreciate the skill of the introduction, development, and 
appeal.) 

And Agrippa said unto Paul, Thou art permitted to speak 
for thyself. Then Paul stretched forth his hand, and made 
his defense: 

I think myself happy, King Agrippa, that I am to make 
my defense before thee this day touching all the things 
whereof I am accused by the Jews: especially because thou 
are expert in all customs and questions which are among the 
Jews: wherefore I beseech thee to hear me patiently. 

My manner of life, then, from my youth up, which was 
from the beginning among my own nation, and at Jerusalem, 
know all the Jews; having knowledge of me from the first, 
if they be willing to testify, how that after the straitest 
sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee. And now I stand 
here to be judged for the hope of the promise made of God 
unto our fathers; unto which promise our twelve tribes, 

383 



384 The Making of an Oration 

earnestly serving God night and day, hope to attain. And 
concerning this hope I am accused by the Jews, O king ! Why 
is it judged incredible with you, if God doth raise the dead? 
I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things 
contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And this I also 
did in Jerusalem: and I both shut up many of the saints in 
prison, having received authority from the chief priests, and 
when they were put to death, I gave my vote against them. 
And punishing them oftentimes in all the synagogues, I 
strove to make them blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad 
against them, I persecuted them even unto foreign cities. 
Whereupon as I journeyed to Damascus with the authority 
and commission of the chief priests, at midday, O king, I 
saw on the way a light from heaven, above the brightness 
of the sun, shining round about me and them that journeyed 
with me. And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard 
a voice saying unto me in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, 
why persecutest thou me ? It is hard for thee to kick against 
the goad. And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord 
said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. But arise, and 
stand upon thy feet; for to this end have I appeared unto 
thee, to appoint thee a minister and a witness both of the 
things wherein thou hast seen me, and of the things wherein 
I will appear unto thee ; delivering thee from the people, and 
from the Gentiles, unto whom I send thee, to open their eyes, 
that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the 
power of Satan unto God, that they may receive remission 
of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified 
by faith in me. 

Wherefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the 
heavenly vision; but declared both to them of Damascus 
first, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of 
Judaea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and 
turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance. For this 



Speeches for Careful Study 385 

cause the Jews seized me in the temple, and assayed to kill 
me. Having therefore obtained the help that is from God, 
I stand unto this day testifying both to small and great, say- 
ing nothing but what the prophets and Moses did say should 
come; how that the Christ must suffer, and how that he first 
by the resurrection of the dead should proclaim light both 
to the people and to the Gentiles. 

And as he thus made his defence, Festus said with a loud 
voice, Paul, thou art mad; thy much learning doth turn thee 
to madness ! But Paul said, I am not mad most excellent 
Festus; but speak forth words of truth and soberness. For 
the king knoweth these things, unto whom also I speak freely : 
for I am persuaded that none of these things is hidden from 
him ; for this hath not been done in a corner. King Agrippa, 
believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest. 
And Agrippa said unto Paul, With but little persuasion thou 
wouldst fain make me a Christian. And Paul said, I would 
to God, that whether with little or with much, not thou only, 
but also all that hear me this day, might become such as I 
am, except these bonds. 



PAUL TO THE ATHENIANS 

(Acts XVII) 

(The following is of course but a fragment, since the speaker 
was interrupted before he had completed his address. It is given 
here as an example of courtesy and tact in making an approach 
to a theme that was contrary to all the habits of thought of his 
hearers. Without in the least compromising his own sturdy 
fidelity to his message, he prepared the way for that message by 
approaching his hearers on their own ground. On every hand he 
saw temples, altars, monuments, and shrines erected in honor of 
their deities ; and for fear that in their devotion some god might 
have been overlooked they had erected an altar to him. This altar 
with its inscription furnished the speaker his theme. In his intro- 
duction, Paul showed himself to be both a wise speaker and a 
gentleman.) 

Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too 
superstitious [very religious]. For as I passed by and beheld 
your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To the 
unknown god. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, 
him declare I unto you. The God that made the world and 
all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, 
dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is wor- 
shipped with men's hands, as though he needed anything, 
seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and 
hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on 
all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before 
appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they 
should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and 
find him, though he be not far from every one of us ; for in 
him we live, and move, and have our being ; as certain also 

386 



Speeches for Careful Study 387 

of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. 
Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought 
not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or 
stone, graven by art and man's device. And the times of this 
ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men 
everywhere to repent: because he hath appointed a day, in 
the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that 
man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assur- 
ance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. 



AHAB AND MICAIAH 

a sermon by 
Alexander Maclaren 

(Many of the greatest names in the history of oratory are 
found among preachers, and the study of good sermons will be 
found very profitable as a training in oratorical discourse, both as 
to structure and style. One of the most eloquent preachers of the 
last century was Alexander Maclaren. For nearly half of that 
century he stood in the front rank of English preachers, as pastor 
of a great church in Manchester. Men of all ranks, rich and poor, 
learned and unlearned, not only from all England but from 
across the sea, made pilgrimages to Manchester solely to hear 
Dr. Maclaren. All his sermons were great sermons. The follow- 
ing was not his greatest, but is an average specimen of the thou- 
sands that were preached by him and read every week by hundreds 
of thousands of people in both England and America. The stu- 
dent's attention is called to the clear and simple but beautiful 
style, and also to the definite, logical, and progressive plan. Such 
oratory means something, is easy to follow, is stimulating to 
thought, appeals to the imagination, and lays hold on the will.) 

Text : I Kings XXII : 7, 8 

" And Jehoshaphat * said, Is there not here a prophet of the 
Lord besides, that we might inquire of him? And the king of 
Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah, the 
son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord: but I hate 
him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil." 

An ill-omened alliance had been struck up between Ahab 

of Israel and Jehoshaphat of Judah. The latter, who would 

have been much better in Jerusalem, had come down to 

Samaria to join an assault on the kingdom of Damascus; 

but, like a great many other people, Jehoshaphat first made 

388 



Speeches for Careful Study 389 

up his mind without asking God, and then thought it might 
be well to get some kind of varnish of a religious sanction 
for his decision. So he proposes to his ally to inquire of the 
Lord about this matter. One would have thought that that 
should have been done before, and not after, the determina- 
tion was made. Ahab does not at all see the necessity for 
such a thing, but, to please his scrupulous ally, he sends for 
his priests. They came, four hundred of them, and they all 
played the tune, of course, that Ahab called for. It is not 
difficult to get prophets to pat a king on the back, and tell 
him, " Do what you like." 

But Jehoshaphat was not satisfied yet. Perhaps he thought 
that Ahab's clergy were not exactly God's prophets, but at 
all events he wanted an independent opinion, and so he asks 
if there is not in all Samaria a man that can be trusted to 
speak out. He gets for an answer the name of this " Micaiah 
the son of Imlah." Ahab had had experience of him, and 
knew his man ; and the very name leads him to an explosion 
of passion, which, like other explosions, lays bare some very 
ugly depths. " I hate him ; for he doth not prophesy good 
concerning me, but evil." That is a curious mood, is it not? 
That a man should know another to be a messenger of God, 
and therefore that his words are true, and that if he asked 
his counsel he would be forbidden to do the thing that he is 
dead set on doing, and would be warned that to do it was 
destruction; and so, like a fool, he will not ask the counsel, 
and never dreams of dropping the purpose, but simply bursts 
out in a passion of puerile rage against the counselor, and 
will have none of his reproofs. Very curious ! But there are 
a great many of us that have something of the same mood 
in us, though we do not speak it out as plainly as Ahab did. 
It lurks more or less in us all; and, dear friends, it largely 
determines the attitude that some of you take to Christianity 
and to Christ. So I wish to say a word or two about it. 



390 The Making of an Oration 

I. First, my text suggests the inevitable opposition between 
a message from God and man's evil. 

No doubt, God is love; and just because He is, it is abso- 
lutely necessary that what comes from Him, and is the reflex 
and cast, so to speak, of His character, should be in stern 
and continual antagonism to that evil which is the worst 
foe of men, and is sure to lead to their death. It is because 
God is love, that "to the froward He shows Himself fro- 
ward," and opposes that which, unopposed and yielded to, 
will ruin the man that does it. So this is one of the charac- 
teristic marks of all true messages from God, that men who 
will not part from their evil call them " stern," " rigid," 
" gloomy," " narrow." Yes, of course, because God must 
look upon godless lives with disapprobation, and must desire 
by all means to draw men away from that which is drawing 
them away from him and to their death. 

Now, I suppose I need not spend time in enumerating or 
describing the points in the attitude of Christianity towards 
the solemn fact of human sin, which correspond to Ahab's 
complaint that the prophet spake always " not good concern- 
ing him, but evil." The " Gospel " of Jesus Christ proves 
its name to be true, and that it is " good news," not only by 
its graciousness, its promises, its offers, and the rich bless- 
ing of eternal life with which its hands are full, but by its 
severity, as men call it. One characteristic of the Gospel is 
the altogether unique place which the fact of sin fills in it. 
There is no other religion on the face of the earth that has 
so grasped and made prominent this thought : " All have 
sinned and come short of the glory of God." There is none 
that has painted human nature as it is in such dark colors, 
because there is none that knows itself to be able to change 
human nature into such radiance of glory and purity. The 
Gospel has, if I might so say, on its palette a far greater 
range of pigments than any other system. Its blacks are 



Speeches for Careful Study 391 

blacker; its whites are whiter; its golds are more lustrous 
than those of any other painters of human nature as it is 
and as it may become. It is a mark of its Divine origin that 
it unfalteringly looks facts in the face, and will not say 
smooth things about men as they are. 

Side by side with that characteristic of the dark picture 
which it draws of us, as we are of ourselves, is its unhesitat- 
ing restraint or condemnation of deep-seated desires and 
tendencies. It does not come to men with the smooth words 
on its lips, " Do as thou wilt." It does not seek for favor by 
relaxing bonds, but it rigidly builds up a wall on either side 
of a narrow path, and says, " Walk within these limits and 
thou art safe. Go beyond them a hair's breadth and thou 
perishest." It may suit Ahab's prophets to fling the reins on 
the neck of human nature ; God's prophet says, " Thou shalt 
not." That is another of the tests of Divine origin, that there 
shall be no base compliance with inclinations, but rigid con- 
demnation of many of our deep desires. 

Side by side with these two, there is a third characteristic 
that the Word, which is the outcome and expression of the 
Divine love, is distinguished by plain and stern declarations 
of the bitter consequences of evil-doing. I need not dwell 
upon these, brethren. They seem to me to be far too solemn 
to be spoken of by a man to men in other words than Scrip- 
ture's. But I beseech you to remember that this, too, is the 
characteristic of Christ's message. So a man may say, when 
he thinks of the dark and solemn things that the Old Testa- 
ment partially, and the New Testament more clearly, utters 
as to the death which is the outcome of sin, that these are 
indeed the very voice of infinite love pleading with us all. 
Brother, do not so misapprehend facts as to think that the 
restraints and threatenings and dark pictures which Christ 
and his servants have drawn are anything but the utterance 
of the purest affection. 



392 The Making of an Oration 

II. Now, secondly, let me ask you to look for a moment 
at the strange dislike which this attitude of Christianity 
kindles. 

I have said that Ahab's mental condition was a very odd 
one. Strange as it is, it is, as I have already remarked, in 
some degree a very frequent one. There are in us all, as we 
see in many regions of life, the beginnings of the same kind 
of feeling. Here, for example, is a course that I am quite 
sure, if I pursue it, will land me in evil. Does the drunkard 
take a glass the less, because he knows that if he goes on he 
will have a drunkard's liver and die a miserable death ? Does 
the gambler ever take away his hand from the pack of cards 
or the dicebox, because he knows that play means, in the long 
run, poverty and disgrace? When a man sets his will upon 
a certain course, he is like a bull that he has started in its 
rage. Down goes the head, and, with eyes shut, he will 
charge a stone wall or an iron door, though he knows it will 
mash his skull. Men are very foolish animals; and there 
is no greater mark of their folly than the conspicuous and 
oft-repeated fact that the clearest vision of the consequences 
of a course of conduct is powerless to turn a man from it, 
when once his passions, or his will, or, worse still, his weak- 
ness, or, worst of all, his habits, have bound him to it. 

Take another illustration. Do we not all know that honest 
friends have sometimes fallen out of favor, perhaps with 
ourselves, because they have persistently kept telling us what 
our consciences and our common-sense knew to be true, that 
if we go on by that road we shall be suffocated in a bog? A 
man makes up his mind to a course of conduct. He has a 
shrewd suspicion that his honest friend will condemn and 
that the condemnation will be right. What does he do, there- 
fore? He never tells his friend, and if by chance that friend 
should say what was expected of him, he gets angry with 
his adviser and goes his road. I suppose we all know what 



Speeches for Careful Study 393 

it is to treat our consciences in the style in which Ahab 
treated Micaiah. We do not listen to them because we know 
what they will say before they have said it; and we call 
ourselves sensible people ! Martin Luther once said : " It 
is neither safe nor wise to do anything against conscience." 
But Ahab put Micaiah in prison; and we shut up our con- 
sciences in a dungeon, and put a gag in their mouths, and a 
muffler over the gag, that we may hear them say no word, 
because we know that what we are doing, and we are deter- 
mined to do, is wrong. 

But the saddest illustration of this infatuation is to be 
found in the attitude that many men take in regard to Chris- 
tianity. There is a great craving today, more perhaps than 
there has been in some other periods of the world's history, 
for a religion which shall adorn, but shall not restrain ; for a 
religion which shall be toothless, and have no bite in it; for 
a religion that shall sanction anything that it pleases our 
sovereign mightiness to want to do. We should all like to 
have God's sanction for our actions. But there are a great 
many of us that will not take the only way to secure that — 
namely, to do the actions which He commands, and to abstain 
from that which He forbids. Popular Christianity is a very 
easy-fitting garment ; it is like 2 an old shoe, that you can 
slip off and on without any difficulty. But a religion which 
does not put up a strong barrier between you and many of 
your inclinations is not worth anything. The mark of a 
message from God is that it restrains and coerces and forbids 
and commands. And some of you do not like it because it 
does. 

There is a great tendency this day to cut out of the Old 
and New Testaments all the pages that say things like this, 
" The soul that sinneth it shall die " ; or things like this, 
" This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, 
and men love darkness rather than light" ; or things like 



394 The Making of an Oration 

this, " Then shall the wicked go away into outer darkness." 
Brethren, men being what they are, and God being what He 
is, there can be no Divine message without a side of what 
the world calls threatening, or what Ahab called " prophesy- 
ing evil." I beseech you, do not be carried away by the 
modern talk about Christianity being gloomy and dark, or 
fancy that it is a blot and an excrescence upon the pure re- 
ligion of the Man of Nazareth, when we speak of the death 
that follows sin, and of the darkness into which unbelief 
carries a man. 

III. Once more, let me say a word about the intense felly 
of such an attitude. 

Ahab hated Micaiah. Why? Because Micaiah told him 
what would come to him as the fruit of his own actions. 
That was foolish. It is no less foolish for people to take up 
a position of dislike, and to turn away from the Gospel of 
Jesus Christ because it speaks in like manner. I said that 
men are very foolish animals; there is surely nothing in all 
the annals of human stupidity more stupid than to be angry 
with the word that tells you the truth about what you are 
bringing down upon your heads. It is absurd, because Micaiah 
did not make the evil, but Ahab made it ; and Micaiah's busi- 
ness was only to tell him what he was doing. It is absurd, be- 
cause the only question to be asked is, Are the warnings 
true ? Are the threatenings representative of what will really 
come? Are the prohibitions reasonable? And it is absurd, 
because, if these things are so — if it is true that the soul 
that sinneth dies, and will die; if it is true that you, who 
have heard the name and the salvation of Jesus Christ over 
and over again, and have turned away from it, will, if you 
continue in that negligence and unbelief, reap bitter fruits 
here and hereafter therefrom — if 3 these things are true, 
surely the man that tells you, and the gospel that tells you, 



Speeches for Careful Study 395 

deserve better treatment than Ahab's petulant hatred or your 
stolid indifference and neglect. 

Would you think it wise for a sea-captain to try to take 
the clapper out of the bell that floats and tolls above a shoal 
on which his ship will be wrecked if it strikes? Would it 
be wise to put out the lighthouse lamps, and then think that 
you have abolished the reef? Does the signalman with his 
red flag make the danger that he warns of, and is it not 
like a baby to hate and to neglect the message that comes to 
you and says, " Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die ? " 

IV. So, lastly, I notice the end of this foolish attitude. 

Ahab was told in plain words by Micaiah, before the inter- 
view closed, that he would never come back again in peace. 
He ordered the bold prophet into prison, and rode away 
gaily, no doubt, to his campaign. Weak men are very often 
obstinate, because they are not strong enough to rise to 
the height of changing a purpose when reason urges. This 
weak man was always obstinate in the wrong place, as so 
many of us are. So, away he went, down from Samaria, 
across the plain, down to the fords of the Jordan. But 
when he had crossed to the other side, and was coming near 
his objective point, the memories of Micaiah in prison at 
Samaria began to sit heavy on his soul. 

So he tried to dodge Divine judgment, and got up an 
ingenious scheme by which his ally was to go into the fight 
in royal pomp, and he to slip into it disguised. A great many 
of us try to dodge God, and it does not answer. The man 
who " drew a bow at a venture " had his hand guided by a 
higher hand. Ahab was plated all over with iron and brass, 
but there is always a crevice through which God's arrow can 
find its way; and, where God's arrow finds its way, it kills. 
When the night fell he was lying dead on his chariot floor, 
and the host was scattered, and Micaiah, the prisoner, was 
avenged; and his word took hold on the despiser of it. 



396 The Making of an Oration 

So it always will be. So it will be with us, dear brethren, 
if we do not take heed to our ways and listen to the word 
which may be bitter in the mouth, but, taken, turns sweet as 
honey. Nailing the index of the barometer to " set fair " 
will not keep off the thunder storm, and no negligence or 
dislike of the Divine threatenings will arrest the slow, solemn 
march, inevitable as destiny, of the consequence of our 
doings. Things will be as they will be; believed or un- 
believed, the avalanche will come. Dear brethren, there is 
one way to get Micaiah on our side. Listen to him, and then 
he will speak good to you, and not what you foolishly call 
evil. Let God's word convince you of sin. Let it bring you 
to the cross for pardon. Jesus Christ addresses each of us 
in the Apostle's words: "Am I therefore become thine 
enemy because I tell you the truth ? " The sternest " threaten- 
ings " in the Bible come from the lips of that infinite Love. 
If you will 4 listen to Him, if you will yield yourselves to 
Him, if you will take Him for your Savior and your Lord, 
if you will cast your confidence and anchor your love upon 
Him, if you will let Him restrain you, if you will consult 
Him about what He would have you do, if you will accept 
His prohibitions as well as His permissions, then His word 
and His act to you, here and hereafter, will be only good and 
not evil, all the days of your life. 

Remember Ahab lying dead on the floor of his chariot in 
a pool of his own blood, and bethink yourselves of what 
despisings and threatenings, and turning away from the 
rebukes and prohibitions of the Divine word come to. These 
threatenings are spoken that they may never need to be put 
into effect; if you give heed to them they will never be put 
into effect in regard to you. If you neglect them and " will 
none of " God's " reproof," they will come down on you like 
a mighty rock loosed from the mountain, and will grind you 
to powder. 



: 



Speeches for Careful Study 397 



NOTES ON DR. MACLAREN S SERMON 

1. Read, in connection with the study of this selection, I Kings, 
XXI and XXII. 

2. Observe the homeliness of the figures. Are they less or 
more effective because they are drawn from the experiences of 
common life? 

3. Observe how the quality of clearness is enhanced by thus 
gathering the series of conditions of the preceding clauses into 
this summarizing clause with the word " these " as the summa- 
rizing word. 

4. Note how the periodic sentence gives climax to this sentence. 

5. It will be instructive to observe how the element of persua- 
sion pervades and permeates this entire discourse. This is quite 
in accordance with the modern use; once it was more common to 
make the appeal more formal — as an application of the truths 
presented in the argument. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS 

BY 

President Woodrow Wilson 

March 4, 191 3 

(In many respects the following address is, at once, the most 
significant and the most eloquent speech delivered on a like occa- 
sion since the time of Lincoln. Indeed, in some respects, it reminds 
one of both of Lincoln's inaugurals and of the " Gettysburg 
Speech." It is well worthy of the most careful analysis for its 
thought and the most intimate study for its style.) 

There has been a change of government. It began two 
years ago, when the House of Representatives became Demo- 
cratic by a decisive majority. It has now been completed. 
The Senate, about to assemble, will also be Democratic. The 
offices of President and Vice-President have been put into 
the hands of Democrats. What does the change mean? That 
is the question that is uppermost in our minds today. That 
is the question I am going to try to answer, in order, if I 
may, to interpret the occasion. 

It means much more than the mere success of a party. 
The success of a party means little except when the nation is 
using that party for a large and definite purpose. No one 
can mistake the purpose for which the nation now seeks to 
use the Democratic party. It seeks to use it to interpret a 
change in its own plans and point of view. Some old things 
with which we had grown familiar, and which had begun to 
creep into the very habit of our thoughts and of our lives, 
have altered their aspect as we have latterly looked critically 
upon them, with fresh, awakened, eyes; have dropped their 

398 



Speeches for Careful Study 399 

disguises and shown themselves alien and sinister. Some new 
things, as we look frankly upon them, willing to comprehend 
their real character, have come to assume the aspect of things 
long believed in and familiar, stuff of our own convictions. 
We have been refreshed by a new insight into our own life. 

We see that in many things that life is very great. It is 
incomparably great in its material aspects, in its body of 
wealth, in the diversity and sweep of its energy, in the 
industries which have been conceived and built up by the 
genius of individual men and the limitless enterprise of 
groups of men. It is great, also, very great, in its moral 
force. Nowhere else in the world have noble men and 
women exhibited in more striking forms the beauty and the 
energy of sympathy and helpfulness and counsel in their 
efforts to rectify wrong, alleviate suffering, and set the weak 
in the way of strength and hope. We have built up, more- 
over, a great system of government, which has stood through 
a long age as in many respects a model for those who seek 
to set liberty upon foundations that will endure against for- 
tuitous change, against storm and accident. Our life con- 
tains every great thing, and contains it in rich abundance. 

But the evil has come with the good, and much fine gold 
has been corroded. With riches has come inexcusable waste. 
We have squandered a great part of what we might have 
used, and have not stopped to conserve the exceeding bounty 
of nature, without which our genius for enterprise would 
have been worthless and impotent, scorning to be careful, 
shamefully prodigal as well as admirably efficient. We have 
been proud of our industrial achievements, but we have not 
hitherto stopped thoughtfully enough to count the human 
cost, the cost of lives snuffed out, of energies overtaxed and 
broken, the fearful physical and spiritual cost to the men and 
women and children upon whom the dead weight and burden 
of it all has fallen pitilessly the years through. The groans 



400 The Making of an Oration 

and agony of it all had not yet reached our ears, the solemn, 
moving undertone of our life, coming up out of the mines 
and factories and out of every home where the struggle had 
its intimate and familiar seat. With the great government 
went many deep secret things which we too long delayed to 
look into and scrutinize with candid, fearless eyes. The 
great government we loved has too often been made use of 
for private and selfish purposes, and those who used it had 
forgotten the people. 

At last a vision has been vouchsafed us of our life as a 
whole. We see the bad with the good, the debased and 
decadent with the sound and vital. With this vision we 
approach new affairs. Our duty is to cleanse, to reconsider, 
to restore, to correct the evil without impairing the good, 
to purify and humanize every process of our common life 
without weakening or sentimentalizing it. There has been 
something crude and heartless and unfeeling in our haste 
to succeed and be great. Our thought has been " Let every 
man look out for himself, let every generation look out for 
itself," while we reared giant machinery which made it im- 
possible that any but those who stood at the levers of control 
should have a chance to look out for themselves. We had 
not forgotten our morals. We remembered well enough that 
we had set up a policy which was meant to serve the humblest 
as well as the most powerful, with an eye single to the stand- 
ards of justice and fair play, and remembered it with pride. 
But we were very heedless and in a hurry to be great. 

We have come now to the sober second thought. The 
scales of heedlessness have fallen from our eyes. We have 
made up our minds to square every process of our national 
life again with the standards we so proudly set up at the be- 
ginning, and have always carried at our hearts. Our work 
is a work of restoration. 

We have itemized with some degree of particularity the 



Speeches for Careful Study 401 

things that ought to be altered and here are some of the 
chief items: A tariff which cuts us off from our proper 
part in the commerce of the world, violates the just prin- 
ciples of taxation, and makes the government a facile instru- 
ment in the hands of private interests; a banking and cur- 
rency system based upon the necessity of the government to 
sell its bonds fifty years ago and perfectly adapted to con- 
centrating cash and restricting credits; an industrial system 
which, take it on all its sides, financial as well as administra- 
tive, holds capital in leading strings, restricts the liberties 
and limits the opportunities of labor, and exploits without 
renewing or conserving the natural resources of the coun- 
try; a body of agricultural activities never yet given the 
efficiency of great business undertakings or served as it 
should be through the instrumentality of science taken di- 
rectly to the farm, or afforded the facilities of credit best 
suited to its practical needs; water courses undeveloped, 
waste places unreclaimed, forests untended, fast disappear- 
ing without plan or prospect of renewal, unregarded waste 
heaps at every mine. We have studied as perhaps no other 
nation has the most effective means of production, but we 
have not studied cost or economy as we should either as 
organizers of industry, as statesmen or as individuals. 

Nor have we studied and perfected the means by which 
government may be put at the service of humanity, in safe- 
guarding the health of the nation, the health of its men and 
its women and its children, as well as their rights in the strug- 
gle for existence. This is no sentimental duty. The firm 
basis of government is justice, not pity. These are matters 
of justice. There can be no equality of opportunity, the first 
essential of justice in the body politic, if men and women 
and children be not shielded in their lives, their very vitality, 
from the consequences of great industrial and social processes 
which they cannot alter, control, or singly cope with. Society 



402 The Making of an Oration 

must see to it that it does not itself crush or weaken or 
damage its own constituent parts. The first duty of law is 
to keep sound the society it serves. Sanitary laws, pure- 
food laws, and laws determining conditions of labor which 
individuals are powerless to determine for themselves are 
intimate parts of the very business of justice and legal 
efficiency. 

These are some of the things we ought to do, and not leave 
the others undone, the old-fashioned, never-to-be-neglected, 
fundamental safeguarding of property and of individual 
right. This is the high enterprise of the new day: to lift 
everything that concerns our life as a nation to the light 
that shines from the hearth-fire of every man's conscience 
and vision of the right. It is inconceivable that we should 
do this as partisans; it is inconceivable that we should do it 
; n ignorance of the facts as they are or in blind haste. We 
shall restore, not destroy. We shall deal with our economic 
system as it is and as it may be modified, not as it might 
be if we had a clean sheet of paper to write upon; and step 
by step we shall make it what it should be, in the spirit 
of those who question their own wisdom and seek council 
and knowledge not shallow self-satisfaction or the excite- 
ment of excursions whither they cannot tell. Justice, and 
only justice, shall always be our motto. 

And yet it will be no cool process of mere science. The 
nation has been deeply stirred — stirred by a solemn passion, 
stirred by the knowlege of wrong, of ideals lost, of govern- 
ment too often debauched and made an instrument of evil. 
The feelings with which we face this new age of right and 
opportunity sweep across our heartstrings like some air out 
of God's own presence, where justice and mercy are recon- 
ciled and the judge and the brother are one. We know our 
task to be no mere task of politics, but a task which shall 
search us through and through, whether we be able to under- 






Speeches for Careful Study 403 

stand our time and the need of our people, whether we be 
indeed their spokesmen and interpreters, whether we have 
the pure heart to comprehend and the rectified will to choose 
our high course of action. 

This is not a day of triumph; it is a day of dedication. 
Here muster not the forces of party but the forces of human- 
ity. Men's hearts wait upon us ; men's lives hang in the bal- 
ance; men's hopes call upon us to say what we will do. Who 
shall live up to the great trust? Who dares fail to try? I 
summon all honest men, all patriotic, all forward-looking 
men, to my side. God helping me, I will not fail them, if 
they will but counsel and sustain me. 

NOTES ON THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF WOODROW WILSON 

1. Let the student make a careful plan of this great address, 
noting the several steps in the thought from the introduction to 
the conclusion that stirs the blood like a trumpet with its appeal 
and challenge. 

2. Note the choice of words and the appropriateness of the 
diction. 

3. Observe the sentence structure, simple and vigorous, human 
yet dignified as was befitting the man and the occasion, as well as 
the topics with which the speaker deals. 

4. Note the fervor, yet manliness of the style, and the high 
spirit and noble ideals that animate the entire discourse. Com- 
pare the speech in these particulars with Lincoln's inaugurals. 



ORATIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 

***** 

In addition to the speeches printed in full in preceding 
pages, the following brief list of great addresses is sug- 
gested as furnishing examples of oratorical construction 
and style from which the student may derive helpful illus- 
trations of oratorical law and practice. It is suggested 
that each member of a class, or each private student of 
the subject, be assigned to or take one of these speeches, 
or another from the multitude within the reach of almost 
any student, and prepare an essay after a careful study 
of the production chosen. This essay need not be very 
long — not more, ordinarily than one thousand words, — 
and should cover the following points : 

( I.) A brief account of the circumstances under which 
the speech was delivered; 

(2.) A brief, clear statement of the Theme of the 
speech ; 

(3.) A well-constructed Plan of the speech according 
to the outline given in the text. In this plan the " Ob- 
ject " should be given the proper form ; 

(4.) A discussion of the Style, including (a) choice of 
words, (b) diction, (c) figures of speech — especially 

404 



Orations for Further Study 405 

those that promote force, (d) construction of sentences, 
especially as to clearness and force; (illustrate, when 
necessary, by quoting from the speech itself) ; (e) allu- 
sions, (f) illustrations, (g) climax — not only as to 
arrangement of material, but as to expression in the di- 
visions themselves. Give especial attention to the style 
of the Introduction and the Conclusion. 

Orations for Further Study 

i. Speech of William Wirt in the Trial of Aaron Burr. 

2. Speech of Edmund Randolph in the Trial of Aaron Burr. 

3. The Scholar in a Republic (Wendell Phillips). 

4. Make Haste Slowly (Charles Sumner). 

5. Speech at Faneuil Hall (Webster). 

6. The Bunker Hill Monument (Everett). 

7. Speech of Lord Mansfield on Taxing America. 

8. Lord Chesterfield against Licensing Ginshops. 

9. Mr. Brougham on the Invasion of Spain by France. 

10. Speech on the Reform Bill (Macaulay). 

11. On the New Army Bill (Henry Clay). 

12. The Revolution in Greece (Webster). 

13. Machine Politics and the Remedy (G. W. Curtis). 

14. Speech on the British Treaty (Madison). 

15. Speech on the Oregon Bill (Calhoun). 

16. The Working Men's Party (Everett). 

17. Case of John Wilkes (Lord Chatham). 

18. The Rupture of the Negotiations with France (Pitt). 

19. Warren Hastings on the Begum Charge (Sheridan). 

20. Conciliation with America (Burke). 

21. To the Electors of Bristol (Burke). 

22. Parliamentary Reform (Fox). 

23. The Russian Armament (Fox). 

24. Speech on the American Constitution (Patrick Henry). 

25. Speech in the Case of Harry Croswell (Hamilton). 

26. On His Nomination to the United States Senate (Lincoln). 

27. The True Grandeur of Nations (Charles Sumner). 

28. The Murder of Lovejoy (Phillips). 

29. Public Offices as Private Perquisites (Carl Schurz). 

30. The Mexican Treaty and the Monroe Doctrine (Gerrit 
Smith. H. of R., June 27, '54). 

31. The Irrepressible Conflict (W. H. Seward). 

32. The Highest Form of Expression (F. W. Robertson). 



406 The Making of an Oration 

33. The Immortality of Good Deeds (Thomas B. Reed). 

34. Blifil and Black George — Puritan and Blackleg (John 
Randolph). 

35. Iscariot in Modern England (Ruskin's Speech at Camber- 
well). 

36. A Plea for Conciliation in 1876 (Thomas F. Bayard). 

37. The Battle of Gettysburg (Charles Francis Adams). 

38. On the Philippine Question (A. J. Beveridge). 

39. Reply to Hayne (Webster). 

40. First Settlement of New England (Webster). 

41. Second Bunker Hill Monument Speech (Webster). 

42. Other Speeches by Henry Ward Beecher in England 
during the Civil War. 

43. Public Opinion (Wendell Phillips). 

44- The Abolition Movement (Wendell Phillips). 

45- Lincoln's Election (Wendell Phillips). 

46. The American Doctrine of Liberty (George William 
Curtis). 

47- The Puritan Spirit (George William Curtis). 

48. Oration on Garfield (James G. Blaine). 

49- The Impeachment of Warren Hastings (Edmund Burke). 



ORATION SUBJECTS 

***** 

These lists are given for the purpose of aiding students 
in choosing subjects suitable for oratorical treatment. 
They are for the most part stated in a general way, leav- 
ing of necessity to the student the particular statement or 
phase of the general topic which he may wish to present. 

The classification of the topics is only a general one, 
and some of them might just as well be classified differ- 
ently. It is hoped that the lists may be sufficiently sug- 
gestive to be of genuine service. 

Subjects Suitable for Orations 
i. general or ethical 

1. The Utilitarian Spirit of the Age. 

2. Evolution as Related to Christianity. 

3. The Power of Public Opinion. 

4. The Cultivation of Esthetics as an Ethical and Sociolog- 

ical Force. 

5. The Spiritual and Intellectual Bases of Truth. 

6. The Law of Service. 

7. The Growth of Toleration. 

8. The Perfected Life. 

9. Self-realization through Self-sacrifice. 

10. The Fruits of Conviction. 

11. The Influence of Conflict. 

12. The Test of Time. 

13. Unity in Diversity. 

14. The American Tendency to Accept Authority. 

15. The Political Responsibility of Educated Men. 

16. Conventional Enthusiasm. 

17. Patriotic Cosmopolitanism. 

407 



408 The Making of an Oration 

18. The Influence of Environment and of Heredity on 

Shakespeare. 

19. The College Graduate as a Reformer. 

20. The Development of the Religious Element in Man. 

21. Character and Culture. 

22. An International Court of Arbitration. 

23. The Man at the Helm. 

24. The Man and the Hour. 

25. Patriotism versus Jingoism. 

26. The Quest of the Holy Grail. 

27. The Brotherhood of Nations. 

28. The Aggressive Element in Anglo-Saxon Character. 

29. The Scholar's Attitude toward Truth. 

30. The Relation of Liberty to Law. 

31. Arbitration better than War. 

32. Higher Education of Women as a Sign of the Times. 

33. " The Evil that Men Do Lives after Them." 

34. The Importance of Enthusiasm to Success. 

35. Liberty not License. 

36. The Proper Relation of the Preacher to Politics. 

37. The Mission of Radicalism. 

38. Conscience Incarnate in Politics. 

39. The Anglo-Saxon and his Destiny. 

40. Discontent as an Element of Progress. 

41. Inquiry as a Road to Truth. 

42. Cosmopolitan Patriotism. 

43. Oratory as Affected by Civilization. 

44. Invention as an Agent to Civilization. 

45. The Power of Individual Opinion. 

46. Destroyers of Temples. 

47. The Relation of the Inner to the Outer Life. 

48. Opinions Stronger than Armies. 

49. The Debt of Literature to the English Bible. 

50. Ueber die Berge sind auch Leute. 

51. Ideas Rule the World. 

52. "This One Thing I Do." 

53. The Brotherhood of Man. 

54. The Moral Basis of True Eloquence. 

55. Let Every American Boy Have a Chance to Learn a 

Trade. 

56. The Plodder versus the Genius. 

57. The Mission of the Iconoclast. 

58. A National Conscience. 

59. A Political Education for a Political People. 

60. The Victories of Peace. 

61. The Value of a Discriminating Optimism. 



Oration Subjects 409 

62. Faith in Good Things Essential to the Noblest Manhood. 

63. The Market Value of Character. 

64. The Strenuous Life. 

65. The Personal Equation. 

66. Progress of the Saxon Principle. 

67. Evolution of Toleration. 

68. The Tyranny of Ideas. 

69. The Scholar and Social Reform. 

70. Self-Realization through Service. 

71. Education for Service. 

72. Hero Worship. 

72,. The Progress of Morality. 

74. The Conflict of Ideals. 

75. Success through Failure. 

76. The Test of an Education, the Ability to Bring Things 

to Pass. 

77. The Supremacy of Skill. 

78. Cooperation as a Means of Avoiding Industrial Disputes. 
7g. The Relation of Freedom of Thought to Progress. 

80. Optimism versus Pessimism. 

81. Liberty Enlightening the World. 

82. The Alleged Decline of American Patriotism. 

83. Public Office a Public Trust. 

84. The Debt America Owes to Her Educated Men. 

85. The Initiative and Referendum. 

86. Liberalism an Element of Reform. 

87. The Christian Citizen. 

88. Government an Index of National Character. 

89. The Enforcement of Wise Naturalization Laws. 

90. Power of an Educated Minority. 

91. The Supremacy of an Aroused Conscience in a 

Community. 

92. Great Leaders Developed by Great Emergencies. 

93. The Power of the Press. 

94. The Destiny of Africa. 

95. Limits of Toleration. 

96. The Ideal of Manhood. 

97. The Necessity of a Stable Currency to National Pros- 

perity. 

98. Class and Sectional Prejudice a Menace to the State. 

99. The Authority of the President to Suppress Disorder in 

the States. 

100. Patriotism before Party. 

101. The Duty of the Hour. 

102. A National University. 

103. Is Change always Progress? 



410 The Making of an Oration 



104. "New Occasions Teach New Duties." 

105. " Peace Hath Her Victories no less Renowned than War." 

106. Theoretical Men, the Pioneers of Progress. 

107. Is the Workman the Sole Producer of Wealth? 

108. The Ultimate Triumph of Goodness. 

109. Humor as an Element of Success, 
no. The Mission of the Small College. 
in. The Mission of the Large College. 

112. Opportunities for Greatness. 

113. The Anglo-Saxon Element in American Character. 

114. The Spirit of "the Argonauts of '49." 

115. What Makes a Good Citizen? 

116. The Relation of Labor to Genius. 

117. The True Grandeur of Nations. 

118. Voices of the Dead. 

119. The Ultimate Supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon. 

120. Separation of Local and National Politics. 

121. Morality in Politics. 

122. Our Worst Foes. 

123. The New Birth of China. 

124. The College Settlement. 

125. The Need of an Independent Press. 

126. Modern Missions One of the Wonders of the World. 

127. The American Woman's Citizenship. 

128. Progression or Retrogression? 

129. America, the Melting Pot of the Nations. 

130. Shall We Suffer the Fate of Former Republics? 

131. Growth and Evils of Trusts. 

132. The Mission of the Modern Pulpit. 

133. The Progressive Spirit of the United States. 

134. The Men to Make a State. 

135. Self-reliance. 

136. Controversy Tributary to Progress. 

137. Irreverence, a Result of and a Menace to Democracy. 

138. Misuse of the Word, " Success." 

139. A noble Ambition, a Secret to True Success. 

140. Brains and Brawn, the Need of the Times. 

141. Has the Demand for Oratory Passed? 

142. A Defense of Shakespeare's Shylock. 

143. True Sources of Our Nation's Strength. 

144. Ideas, not Armies Conquer the World. 

145. The Interests of America in the Orient. 

146. Ignorance May Do for a Despotism, It Will never Answer 

for a Republic. 

147. The Trend Upward. 

148. The Oratory of Revolutionary Periods. 



Oration Subjects 411 

149. The Boasted Liberal Thinker, the most Illiberal of Men. 

150. The Relation of the Trans-Siberian Railroad to Twentieth 

Century Civilization. 

151. Individuality, not Eccentricity. 

152. The Scholar in Politics. 

153. Obedience to Law, the Safeguard to the Republic. 

154. Equality before the Law. 

155. The Annexation of Cuba. 

156. Why Should the State Provide for Higher Education? 

157. Russian Despotism the Source of Russian Anarchy. 

158. "Do Men Gather Grapes from Thorns?" (Life the Out- 

come of Character.) 
iS9- " Whatsoever a Man Soweth, that Shall he also Reap." 

160. Our Consular Service as a Field for Educated Men. 

161. Early Specialization Tends to Narrowness of Mind. 

162. The Secret Ballot. 

163. The Commission Form of Government for Cities. 

164. Our Buried Soldiers. 

165. War as a Civilizer. 

166. The March of the Centuries. 

167. What is a Genius? 

168. Necessity of Education in a Republic. 

169. The United States as a World Power. 

170. " The White Man's Burden." 

171. The Influence of Oratory on Civilization. 

172. The Law of Service. 

173. Puritan and Cavalier. 

174. America's Mission in the Orient. 

175- The Commission Form of Government. 
176. The Third Term Idea. 

177- The " Stand-Patter " versus the " Insurgent." 
178. Extremists in Politics. 

11. political 

1. Republic or Empire? 

2. Russia, the Coming Sovereign of the World. 

3. The Doctrine of Political Equality. 

4. The Decadence of the Monroe Doctrine. 

5. Will France Remain a Republic? 

6. The Abolition of the English House of Lords. 

7. Under the Throne of the Czars. 

8. Tendency toward Anarchism in the United States. 

9. A Vindication of American Democracy. 

10. The Permanency of the Republic. 

11. Our Consular Service as a Field for Educated Men. 






412 The Making of an Oration 

12. A Plea for an American National Spirit. 

13. What Shall We Do with the Indian? 

14. The Americans and the Mexicans. 

15. The Unspeakable Turk. 

16. Reform of our Pension Laws. 

17. American Unity. 

18. Representation of Minorities. 

19. The Monroe Doctrine Today. 

20. A Remedy for the Evils of Democracy. 

21. Limitations of the Right of Home Rule. 

22. The Election of United States Senators. 

23. Interoceanic Canals and American Diplomacy. 

24. Should Insular Annexation be the National Policy ? 

25. Municipal Reform Essential to National Stability. 

26. Rewards of Political Righteousness. 

27. The Control of Trusts in a Representative Government 

28. The Victories of Peace. 

29. The Initiative and Referendum. 

30. The Recall of Judges. 

31. England's Colonial Policy. 

32. The Rule of the People, but not Anarchy. 

33. Effects of Immigration upon the United States. 

34. The Restriction of Immigration. 

35. America for Americans. 

36. Method of Choosing the President, a Useless Form. 

37. The United States a World Power. 

38. Americans for America. 

39. Extension of Civil-service Reform. 

40. The Men to Make a State. 

41. The Revival of American Shipping. 

42. The Australian Constitution. 

43. Causes of the Decline of Spanish Power. 

44. The Juror or the Jurist? 

45. Cardinal Principles of American Democracy. 

46. Where is our Nation's Strength? 

47. American Citizenship. 

48. The Secret Ballot Essential to Pure Elections. 

49. Woman and the Ballot. 

50. Equality of Taxation. 

51. The Federation of the World Foreshadowed. 

52. The Dismemberment of China. 

53. A Large Standing Army for the United States. 

54. Should a Third Term for President Be Made Impossible? 

55. The Secret Ballot. 

56. Should the Method of Choosing the President Be Changed ? 






Oration Subjects 413 

57. Effect of the Recall of Judges upon the Supremacy of the 

Constitution. 

58. Should the Government Guarantee the Safety of Bank 

Deposits ? 

59. The Strength of the Republic not in its Armies. 

60. Separation of National and Local Politics. 

61. Let Conscience, not the Boss, cast the Ballot. 

62. England's Case Against Home Rule for Ireland. 

63. China and the Powers. 

64. China, the Republic. 

65. If Women Had the Ballot, Would Tl.ey Vote more Wisely 

or Virtuously than Men? 

66. Should the Tariff be Revised Downward? 

67. The True Conception of Liberty. 

68. Should the President's Term of Office Be Lengthened? 

69. Should the People of the Philippines Be Given Self-govern- 

ment? 

70. The Application of the Merit System to the entire Civil- 

service. 

71. The Consular Service, a Sphere of Usefulness for Edu- 

cated Young Men. 

72. Should We Have a National Bank? 

73. The Independence of the National Judiciary Essential to 

National Existence. 

74. National Credit a Condition of National Progress. 

75. An Educational Test for Citizenship. 

76. The Annexation of Cuba. 

77. President Taft's Arbitration Policy. 

78. The Commission Form of Government. 

79. The Enlargement of the Navy. 

80. Can Good Mormons be Good Citizens? 

81. Public Money for Sectarian Schools. 

82. The Relation of the Preacher to Politics. 

83. American Unity. 

84. Representation of Minorities. 

85. The Doctrine of Political Equality. 

86. The Restriction of Immigration. 

87. Should the United States Be Responsible for Order in 

Mexico ? 

88. Popular Primaries for Presidential Candidates. 

III. SOCIOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL 

1. The Relation of the Young Man to Modern Life. 

2. The Patriot of the Twentieth Century. 

3. The Relation of Christianity to Social Questions. 

4. The Tyranny of Extreme Democracy. 

5. Nature of the Present Social Tendency. 



414 The Making of an Oration 

6. Taxation of Church Property. 

7. Race Prejudice in America. 

8. Discontent as a Condition of Progress. 

9. The Foundation of Political Power. 

io. The American Boy and American Labor, 
ii. Precedent and Progress. 

12. Are Trades Unions Promoters of Industry? 

13. What Is Practical Education? 

14. The Altruistic Principle in Socialism. 

15. Profit-sharing as a Remedy for Industrial Ills. 

16. The " New West " and its Bearing on our National Destiny. 

17. Opinions stronger than Armies. 

18. The Race Problem in the United States. 

19. The Relations of Christianity to Wealth. 

20. The Saloon in Politics. 

21. The Relation of the American College to American 

Stability. 

22. The Jews in Russia. 

23. Economic Disturbances a Condition of Social Progress. 

24. The Relation of the Educated Man to Civilization. 

25. The American College a Factor of American Stabilit\\ 

26. The American Spirit of Liberalism. 

27. Law and Liberty. 

28. The Right of Majorities to Rule. 

29. Organization as a Phase of Modern Society. 

30. Reform in Marriage Legislation. 

31. Destroy Child Labor or Destroy the Child. 

32. What the City Owes to the Country. 

33. Barbarism in the Twentieth Century. 

34. The Mission of the Iconoclast. 

35. Advantages of Coeducation. 

36. The Invasion of Africa. 

37. The " Submerged Tenth." 

38. The Power of Civil Law. 

39. The Power of Public Opinion. 

40. The Political Future of the Negro of the South. 

41. The New West and its Bearing on our Future Destiny. 

42. What Will be the Effect of Universal Franchise upon our 

Social Problems? 

43. The Morality and Intelligence of the People the Safe- 

guards of the State. 

44. " The Hand that Rocks the Cradle Rules the World." 

45. The Indian Problem. 

46. The Interests of Employer and Employed not Antagonistic. 

47. Railroads as Civilizers. 

48. A Nation's Literature an Index of a Nation's Progress. 






Oration Subjects 415 

49. Causes of Social Discontent. 

50. Recognition of Human Brotherhood, the Key to the Allevi- 

ation of Human Ills. 

51. The Women of the New South. 

52. Science the Handmaid of Literature (or Progress). 

53. Profit Sharing. 

54. Communism in the United States. 

55. Does a College Education Unfit One for Business? 

56. Society's Responsibility for the Criminal. 

57. Society's Responsibility for the Training of the Child. 

58. Should the Government Legislate against all Trusts? 

59. The Suppression of Crime. 

60. The Salvation Army as a Reforming Agency. 

61. The Conflict of Ideals, an Element of Progress. 

62. The Demon of Mob Rule. 

63. The Preacher and His Mission. 

64. The Women of the New South. 

65. Christianity the Herald of Business. 

66. The Need for Trained Men. 

67. The Scholar in Politics. 

68. The Importance of Right Ideals. 

69. The Controversy of Labor with Ignorance, rather than 

with Capital. 

70. Crises and Causes which Melt together discordant Ele- 

ments (Title: The Melting Pot). 

71. Evolution versus Revolution in Social Progress. 

72. The Few who Are a Large and Controlling Part of a 

Nation's Conscience. 

73. Effect upon Classes of " American Barbaric Display." 

74. A Compulsory Arbitration Law to Settle Labor Disputes. 

75. Is Profit Sharing Feasible and Advisable? 

76. Improvement of the Rural Home. 

77. Optimism versus Pessimism. 

78. Christian Sociology. 

79. Relation of the Church to Society. 

80. The Debt of Education to Society. 

81. The Debt of Education to Christianity. 

82. The Important Place of the Small College. 

83. The Debt of America to the Denominational College. 

84. Woman's True Place in the World. 

8.i The Need of Moral Courage in Society. 

86. The Control of Trusts. 

87. Liberty Enlightening the World. 

88. Social Evils and their Remedies. 

89. The Mission of the Modern Pulpit. 

90. Should All Colleges Be Co-educational? 

91. The Leveling-up Tendency of the Best Socialism. 



416 The Making of an Oration 

92. Present Tendencies toward Consolidation of Power and 

Wealth. 

93. Orientals in America. 

94. Should Compulsory Arbitration be Adopted as a Means 

of Settling Disputes between Labor and Capital ? 

95. The Attitude of Mormonism toward Society and the State. 

96. Some Effects of the Saloon upon Society and Politics. 

97. The Evils of Radicalism in a Good Cause. 

98. What Should be Done with the Indian? 

99. Should there be Separate Schools for Negroes? 

100. Dangerous Classes in Large Cities. 

101. The Mission of Labor Unions. 

102. University Extension in America. 

103. Capital the Ally of Labor. 

104. Dangers of Child Labor. 

105. Should Oriental Workmen be Excluded from the United 

States? 

106. Should the Boycott be Unlawful ? 

107. Society's Responsibility for the Discharged Criminal. 

108. Reform of the Jury System. 

109. The Relation of Material Prosperity to Christianity. 
no. The Handwriting on the Wall of Partisan Politics. 
in. Prison Reform. 

112. What Shall I do? (The Life-work Problem). 

113. The Student and Society. 

114. China as an Industrial Rival of America. 

115. The Supremacy of Skill. 

116. The Unity of Mankind. 

117. Discontent, a Surety of Progress. 

118. Should there be a National University? 

119. The Altruistic Principle in Socialism. 

120. An American Merchant Marine. 

121. China, the Republic. 

122. Modern Pantheism. 

123. The Scholar and Social Reform. 

124. The Need of Trade Schools. 

125. Reform in Marriage Legislation. 

126. Reform in Divorce Laws. 

127. Why Should the State Establish and Maintain Schools and 

Universities ? 

128. As the Child is Trained the Man is Inclined. 

129. Character not Education the Salvation of Society. 

130. War not Necessary to Develop the Heroic Spirit. 

131. A Plea for an Endowed Press. 

132. Should the State Own and Operate Public Utilities? 

133. Should Income be a Condition of Citizenship? 



Oration Subjects 417 

134. Education Alone not Sufficient to Make a Good Citizen. 

135. The Hope of our Country Rests in its Homes. 

136. Should Capital Punishment be Abolished? 

137. Should Polar Expeditions be further Encouraged? 

138. The Debt of American Civilization to the Farm. 

139. The Chinese as Furnishing a Solution of the Domestic 

Service Problem. 

140. What America May Gain from the Inter-oceanic Canal. 

141. Is the Franchise a Privilege or a Right? 

142. The Things that Are Caesar's. 

143. The Handwriting on the Wall for the Political Boss. 

144. The Philosophy of Gamaliel. 

145. The Economic Impossibility of a Double Standard of 

Value. 

146. The Debt We Owe to Those who Smash our Idols. 

147. What Constitutes a Good College? 

IV. HISTORICAL 

1. Marston Moor. 

2. Bismarck and German Unity. 

3. Cavour and Bismarck. 

4. The Influence of the Crusades on Civilization. 
«v Was Jefferson's Embargo Policy Wise? 

6. The Debt of Liberty to the Netherlands. 

7. Results to China of the War with Japan. 

8. The American Pioneer. 

9. England as a Land Grabber. 

10. The Constitution a Compromise. 

11. Webster's Seventh of March Speech (1850) not Incon- 

sistent with his Previous Position. 

12. The Puritan Influence in America. 

13. The Electoral College. 

14. The Influence of Rousseau and Voltaire on the French 

Revolution. 

15. German Unity, a Product of German Literature. 

16. Relation of the Huguenots to Religious Liberty. 

17. Moses the Lawmaker of Modern Civilization. 

18. Divine Providence in American History. 

19. The Legacy of Rome to the World. 

20. The Poets and Poetry of the Civil War. 

21. The Influence of the Pilgrims on American Thought and 

Life. 

22. The New South. 

23. The Enfranchisement of the Negroes a Political Blunder. 

24. Roger Williams, a Pioneer of Religious and Political Free- 

dom. 



418 The Making of an Oration 

25. Martin Luther as a Force in History. 

26. The Huguenot in America. 

27. The Debt of Literature to the English Bible. 

28. Lincoln, as a Man of the People. 

29. Lincoln, the Martyr of Liberty. 

30. Great Leaders Developed by Great Emergencies. 

31. The " Good Old Times," not the Best Times. 

32. Byron and the Greek Revolution of 182 1. 

33. The Spirit of Cromwell's Soldiers. 

34. The Battle of Missionary Ridge. 

35. Gettysburg, the Crisis of the Civil War. 

36. Whittier, the Poet of Freedom. 

37. The Political Destiny of Canada. 

38. The Armenians and the Turks. 

39. The Influence of American Oratory in American Life. 

40. Saxon and Slav in Asia. 

41. The Hero of Hungary. 

42. American Territorial Expansion. 

43. Development of Constitutional Interpretation. 

44. Charlotte Corday. 

45. William the Silent, the Soldier of Liberty. 

46. Reaction of the Spanish-American War. 

47. Did the United States rightfully Acquire Hawaii? 

48. The Idea of Human Unity in the Roman Empire. 

49. Christ in History. 

50. Melancthon as a Reformer. 

51. Military Men of Letters. 

52. England's Debt to William the Conqueror. 

53. Effect on America of the Capture of Quebec. 

54. Andrew Jackson and the Civil Service. 

55. Conquering of the West. 

56. Grover Cleveland and Civil Service Reform. 

57. The Pacific Railroad and the Development of the West. 

58. The Price of the Prairie. 

59. The Jew in History. 

60. John Milton and the Revolution of 1640. 

61. Development of the English Cabinet. 

62. Effect of Inventions upon English History. 

63. The Pocket Boroughs in England. 

64. Significance of the Brook Farm Experiment. 

65. The Downfall of Jerusalem. 

66. Significance of Napoleon's March to Moscow. 

67. Heroism of the Civil War. 

68. American Contributions to Civilization. 

69. The United States, the Evangel of Religious and Political 

Liberty. 



Oration Subjects 419 

70. The Heroic Struggle of the Netherlands for Independence. 

71. Christendom's Injustice to the Jew. 

72. The Minute Men of '76. 

73. Neal Dow. 

74. The French Revolution, a Messenger of Truth. 

75. The Struggle for Kansas. 

76. The Eloquence of Revolutionary Periods. 

77. Gordon and Havelock as Types of Christian Heroes. 

78. The Agitator in American History. 

79. George William Curtis and Civil Service Reform. 

80. Gladstone and Home Rule in Ireland. 

81. Was John Brown a Traitor? 

82. The Growth of Democracy in the Nineteenth Century. 

83. The Development of Constitutional Government in recent 

Years. 

84. The Spirit of the Abolition Movement. 

85. Cavour and the Unification of Italy. 

86. Causes of the Civil War. 

87. The Treason of Benedict Arnold. 

88. Achievements of the American Navy. 

89. The Growing Spirit of Independence in Politics. 

90. The Presidential Election of 1876, a Revelation of our 

Country's Respect for Law. 

91. Should Cuba be Annexed to the United States? 

92. Was Mrs. Surratt justly Condemned? 

93. Should Samuel J. Tilden have been Seated in the Presi- 

dential Chair? 

94. The Jew and his Persecutors. 

95. The Debt of our Country to Alexander Hamilton. 

96. Providence in History. 

97. Significance of the Battle of Tours. 

98. The Moors in Spain. 

99- What Europe Owes to Gustavus Adolphus. 

100. John Brown, a Hero or a Criminal? 

101. Turkish Atrocities in the Nineteenth Century. 

102. The Debt of Civilization to the French Revolution. 

103. Russian Nihilism. 

104. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Relation to the Abolition of 

Slavery. 

105. The Scandinavians in Europe. 

106. Significance of the Discovery of America. 

107. The Service of Wilberforce to British Emancipation. 

108. The Purpose of the Civil War not to Abolish Slavery. 

109. "The Underground Railroad." 

no. The Oratory of Revolutionary Periods, 
in. Significance of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. 



420 The Making of an Oration 

112. The Dred Scott Decision. 

113. U. S. Grant, a Soldier of Peace. 

114. The Permanence of Puritan Principles. 

115. Christians in Turkey. 

116. Moral Victories in Politics. 

117. The Spanish Armada. 

118. The Influence upon America of the Louisiana Purchase. 

119. Washington at Valley Forge, an Example of True 

Patriotism. 

120. The " Free Quakers " in the Revolutionary War. 

V. BIOGRAPHICAL 

1. The Eloquence of Frances Wayland. 

2. Wendell Phillips as a Reformer. 

3. The Oratory of Wendell Phillips. 

4. William Lloyd Garrison as a Preacher of Abolition. 

5. The Statesmanship of William E. Gladstone, 

6. The Oratory of John Bright. 

7. Webster as The Expounder of the Constitution. 

8. The Oratory of Henry Ward Beecher. 

9. The Eloquence of Abraham Lincoln. 

10. Booker T. Washington. 

11. John Brown. 

12. Roosevelt as an Agitator. 

13. The Statesmanship of Abraham Lincoln. 

14. Captain Scott, the Antarctic Hero. 

15. Marcus Whitman and Our Northwest. 

16. Roger Williams and the Separation of Church and State. 

17. Arnold of Rugby. 

18. The Oratory of Paul the Apostle 

19. The Character of Washington. 

20. The Statesmanship of Washington. 

21. The Statesmanship of Alexander Hamilton. 

22. Charles Sumner and the Abolition of War. 
2^. The Heroic Spirit of Sir Walter Scott. 

24. Sherman and von Moltke. 

25. The Character of Robert E. Lee. 

26. The Debt of the Nation to Daniel Webster. 

27. Webster's Oratory as a Model of Oratorical Style. 

28. Alexander Maclaren as a Preacher. 

29. Frances Willard and Her Work. 

30. The Common Sense of Benjamin Franklin. 

31. John Greenleaf Whittier as a Poet of Freedom. 

32. The Eloquence of Thomas Guthrie. 

33. The Political Courage of Grover Cleveland. 

34. The Patriotism of James Russell Lowell. 



Oration Subjects 421 

35. Tennyson's Ideal of Manhood. 

36. The Political Career of John Bright. 

37. The Attitude of Bright and Gladstone toward the United 

States during the Civil War. 

38. Lord Macaulay. * 

39. Napoleon Bonaparte the Destroyer of Despotism. 

40. Edmund Burke as an Orator and Statesman. 

41. The Oratory of Sheridan. 

42. Frederick Douglas. 

43. Savonarola. 

44. The Patriotism of Stephen A. Douglas. 

45. Salmon P. Chase, the Financier of the Civil War. 

46. Charles Sumner, the Scholar in Politics. 

47. LaFayette. 

48. John Jay, a Political Hero. 

49. Henry Ward Beecher in England during the Civil War. 

50. Was Aaron Burr a Traitor? 

51. Alexander Hamilton, the First United States Treasurer. 

52. Horace Greeley, the Editor. 

53. Joan of Arc. 

54. Brigham Young, the Apostle of Mormonism. 

55. William McKinley, the Preacher of Protection. 

56. Grover Cleveland, the Advocate of a Tariff for Revenue. 

57. Wendell Phillips as an Agitator. 

58. Patrick Henry as an Orator. 

59. Leo Tolstoy, the Democrat in a Despotism. 

60. Cavour and Bismarck. 

61. Roger Williams, the Pioneer of Religious Liberty. 



INDEX 



Adaptation of thought and ex- 
pression, 96-99. 

Allusion, 138, 139. 

Amusing stories, danger of, 
162 

Analysis, provisional, 58, 59. 

Antithesis, 140-143. 

Beecher, Henry Ward, 19, 130, 
192, 193, 250. 

Beveridge, Senator, 145. 

Bible, value of its study, 183, 
184. 

Biography, value of reading, 
175, 176. 

Books, reading essential, 172- 
185. 

Brevity, important for introduc- 
tion, 78-80. 

Bright, John, 114. 

Bryan, William J., 93, 314. 

Burke, Edmund, 92, 123, 160, 
161. 

Clay, Henry, 188, 189. 

Clearness, essential quality of 
style, 100; meaning and meth- 
ods, 102; and words, 105- 
117; aids to, 1 19-127. 

Climax, 151-153. 

Composition of an oration, 73- 
77. 

Conclusion of an oration, 28- 
30; purpose of, 29; planning 
the, 63, 64 ; thought and style, 
86-94. 

Conversation, 56, 57. 



Copiousness, 122. 
Curtis, George William, 133, 
281. 

Delivery, methods of, 196-206; 

reading, 197-199; memorizing, 

199, 200; use of notes, 201; 

no visible helps, 202; spirit 

of, 203, 204. 
Directness in introduction, 84, 

85. 
Discussion, part of an oration, 

25-28 ; plan of, 60-63. 

Elocution, value of, 187-193. 
Epigram, 120, 121, 148-150. 

Feeling essential to eloquence, 

170, 171. 
Figures of speech, 127-140. 

Grady, Henry W., 132, 301. 

Hayne, Colonel, 81. 
Henry, Patrick, 146-148, 209. 
History, value of study, 174. 
Hoar, Senator, 145, 339. 
Hurd, Frank H., 92. 

Imagination, value to orator, 
169. 

Introduction of an oration, 16- 
21 ; planning the, 64-67 ; 
qualities of, 78-85; brevity, 
78-80; simplicity, 80-83; in- 
teresting, 83, 84; direct, 84; 
conciliatory, 84, 85. 



Index 



Lincoln, Abraham, 141, 181, 
182, 214, 226, 227. 

Macaulay, Lord, 152. 
Maclaren, Alexander, 388. 
Material, gathering, 53-57. 
Metaphor, 131 -139. 
Mind, keen and logical essen- 
tial, 169. 

Object of an oration, 48-52. 

Oration, defined, 5-10; purpose 
of, 9, 10; parts of, 14-30; 
introduction, 16-21, 64-67; 
qualities of, 78-85; proposi- 
tion, 21-25; discussion, 25- 
28, 60-63; conclusion, 28-30, 
63, 64, 86-94; plan, 33-39; 
choice of theme, 40-47; ob- 
ject, 48-52; gathering mate- 
rial for, 53-57; ordering of 
material, 58-69; analysis, 58, 
59; statement of proposition, 
59, 60; preparation of a 
speech illustrated, 66; com- 
position, 73-77; adaptation to 
audience, 96; simplicity in 
structure, 99; aids to clear- 
ness, 1 19-127; methods of de- 
livery, 196-206. 

Orations for further study, list 
of, 404-406; subjects for, 
407-421. 

Orator, the, gifts and habits, 
169-171 ; mind, 169; imagina- 
tion, 169; feeling, 170; read- 
ing for, 172-185; value of 
writing, 186, 187; elocution 
for, 187-193; study essential, 
194; oratorical spirit, 194. 

Oratorical style, general quali- 
ties, 95-162. 

Oratory, types of, 11; determi- 
native, 1 1 ; demonstrative, 12, 
13; defined, 95; essential 
characteristics, 96-127; three 



essential qualities of style, 
100-162, 163-165; figures of 
speech, 127-140; need of, 204- 
206. 
Ordering of material, 58-69. 

Paul, St., 381, 383, 386. 

Phillips, Wendell, 120, 121, 138, 
139, 143, 149, 230. 

Pitt, 124. 

Plan of an oration, 33-39; rea- 
sons for, 34-39. 

Poetry, value of study, 178. 

Proposition or object of an 
oration, 21-25; statement of, 
59,6o. 

Reading, 55, 56. 
Repetition, 124-127. 
Rhetorical question, 144-148. 
Rhythm, 154-159- 
Ruskin, 87. 

Sermons, reading of value to 
orator, 180. 

Simile, 129, 130. 

Simplicity in introduction, 80- 
83; in structure, 99. 

Speaker, relation of clearness 
to, 117-119. 

Speech, illustration of plan of, 
66. 

Speeches for study, 209-403; 
list of for further study, 404- 
406; subjects for, 407-421. 

Style, three great qualities, 
100-162; essential qualities, 
163-165; relation to of read- 
ing, 172-185. 

Sumner, Charles, 91, 116, 117, 
190. 

Tennyson, Lord, 138. 



Index 



Theme, choice of, 40-47; prac- 
tical, 41 ; original, 42 ; attrac- 
tive, 42-44; adaptation of, 

44-47- 
Thinking, clear, essential, 104; 

strong, 165. 
Thought in preparation, 53-55- 
Thurston, John M., 324-338. 



Webster, Daniel, 81, 82, 90, 
113, 129, 133. 155, 157, 100. 

Wilson, Woodrow, 398. 

Words, choice of, 105-112; how 
to get and use, 102 ; Saxon, 
112-117; nouns and verbs, 
163, 164. 

Writing, 186, 187. 



OCT 8 WW 



